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BV  4010  .C65 

Cox,  Samuel  H.  1793-1880, 

The  ministry  we  need 


THE   MINISTRY   WE  NEED 


THREE 


INAUGURAL  DISCOURSES 


DELIVERED   AT 


Auburii)    «7une   18)   1835. 


0,    //.  Ccryi: 


Act.  xviii.  24. 


NEW- YORK: 
TAYLOR  &  GOULD, 

Brick  Church  Chapel— opposite  the  City  Hall : 
H.  IVISON  &  CO.  AUBURN. 


1835. 


D.  f  anibkw,  Printer. 


PREFATORY. 


The  following  discourses,  published  by  request  of 
the  Prudential  Committee,  were  delivered  on  occa" 
sion  of  inducting  the  Professor  of  Sacred  Rhe- 
toric AND  Pastoral  Theology  in  the  Auburn  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  The  public  exercises  were  ordered 
by  the  Board  of  Commissioners,  to  whom  apper- 
tains the  general  superintendence  of  the  Institution  ; 
who  elect  all  the  Officers,  Professors,  Tutors,  Trus- 
tees, and  others  entrusted  with  the  immediate  admi- 
nistration of  its  concerns.  The  sermon  and  the  charge 
were  delivered  by  the  brethren  respectively  and  re- 
gularly designated  to  the  service;  who  have  kindly 
consented,  not  without  some  reluctation  at  the  unex- 
pected request,  to  submit  their  manuscripts  for  publi- 
cation. The  Preacher,  an  alinnnvs  oi" the  Seminary, 
and  the  brother  who  officiated  as  President  on  the  oc- 
casion— administering  the  solemnity  of  inauguration 
and  delivering  the  consequent  charge,  were  without 


PREFATORY. 


ing  their  common  sentiments  or  the  precise  topic  to  be 
treated  throughout;  whence  the  substantial  coinci- 
dence of  the  whole,  may  be  viewed  as  more  remarka- 
ble as  well  as  more  valuable.  We  are  under  no  ne- 
cessity studiously  to  inquire  for  the  ministry  we  do 
NOT  NEED  comparatively ;  since  to  open  our  eyes  on 
the  present  disgracefully  contentious  and  deplorably 
lacerated  condition  of  some  certain  and  once  exem- 
plary portions  of  our  own  church  and  our  own  minis- 
try, is  to  learn  enough  for  piety  and  too  much  for  con- 
solation. Verily  there  is  a  fault  somewhere,  and 
THAT  A  great  ONE.  To  whom  it  properly  belongs — 
there  is  ONE  who  knows.  May  we  all  learn  to  say- 
sincerely,  Lord,  is  it  I?  The  church  has  no  enemies 
like  those  in  her  own  bosom  ;  and  she  can  more  hurt 
herself,  than  all  external  enemies  combined  can  hurt 
her.  Why  is  it  that  we  defer  nothing  to  each  other, 
forbear  nothing?  Why  do  we  so  systematically  ela- 
borate our  own  weakness,  as  if  a  better  and  hap- 
pier and  holier  course  of  practice  could  not  conso- 
lidate our  forces  and  augment  our  strength  tenfold  ? 
It  would  be  only  a  vile  affectation  here  to  com- 
pliment the  motives  of  the  disturbers,  impeaching 
only  their  education  and  intelligence.  We  cannot 
see  that  godliness  is  so  absurd  ;  or  that  the  dogma- 
tism and  the  love  of  pov/er,  which  are  universal  cha- 
racteristics— not  in  equal  degrees — of  the  natural 
man,  might  not  better  account  for  the  disciplined  po- 
hcy  of  the  class  in  question,  whose  intolerance  seems 


PREFATORY.  5 

to  wax  prodigious  just  in  ratio  as  their  influence  and 
their  numbers  progressively  wane.  We  do  not  mean 
by  this  to  deny  them  all  claim  to  piety,  but  simply  to 
utter  vercB  voces  ah  imo  pcctore  our  conviction  that 
genuine  piety  sustains  only  a  passive  and  afflicted  re- 
lation to  their  strife-exciting  ways.  It  is  time  the  pub- 
lic saw  them,  as  they  will  not  till  afterward  see  them- 
selves. Our  cause  bleeds  with  the  wounds  of  their 
infliction.  Our  judicatories  are  to  be  tormented,  and 
our  churches  torn,  for  future  years,  with  the  reckless 
prosecutions  now  conducted  against  some  of  our  wor- 
thiest and  most  distinguished  ministers by  men 

whose  chief  distinction  in  the  church  or  the  nation 
has  arisen  signally  from  that  origin.  This  is  a  cheap 
way  to  become  distinguished — perhaps  not  so  easily 
liquidated  in  the  end  !  The  beginning  of  strife  is  as 
when  one  leilelh  out  water :  therefore  leave  off  con- 
tention^ before  it  he  meddled  with.  It  is  an  honor 
for  a  man  to  cease  from  strife:  but  every  fool  will 
he  meddling.  Go  not  forth  hastily  to  strive,  lest  thou 
know  not  what  to  do  in  the  end  thereof  when  thy 
neighbor  hath  'put  thee  to  shame.  One  of  the  six 
things  which  Jehovah  hates,  yea,  one  of  the  seven 
that  are  an  abomination  unto  him,  is  he  that  soweth 
discord  among  brethren.  When  shall  terminate  this 
fratricidal  civil  war  in  our  spiritual.Israel  1^  Then  Ah- 
ner  called  to  Joab,  and  said.  Shall  the  sword  de- 
vour FOR  EVER  ?  KNOWEST  THOU  NOT  THAT  IT  WILL 
BE  BITTERNESS  IN  THE  LATTER  END  ?    An   infidel   phi- 

iosopher  could  make  the  sane  reflection, '  It  is  an  un- 
1* 


6  PREFATORY. 

profitable  contest  to  see  which  can  do  the  other  the 
more  harm.'  But  all  thhs  may  afFect  nothing  those 
resolute  and  committed  propugnatorsofa  shell  of  doc- 
trine, to  whom  the  kernel  of  goodness  is  held  in  less 
estimation.  Perhaps  those  loho  cause  divisions  and 
offences,  are  they  who  think  the  least  practical  for- 
bearance with  their  brethren,  on  almost  any  points  of 
faith,  smaller  or  greater,  to  be  no  virtue  at  all,  but 
only  a  sin  against  their  beau  ideal  of  orthodoxy.  Let 
such  ponder  more  largely  the  constitution  of  our 
church ;  the  general  concessions  in  which  it  was 
adopted ;  the  catholic  spirit  of  its  former  history  ;*  as 

*  I  extract  the  following  from  the  Essay  t)f  the  late  Dr. 
Wilson,  (James  P.  of  Philadelphia,  a  truly  learned,  enlarged, 
and  venerable  man,)  page  101. 

When  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Catechisms  were 
received  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America,  and 
adopted  by  a  Synodical  act,  in  1729,  it  was  with  this  pro- 
viso ;  "  And  in  case  any  minister  of  the  Synod,  or  any  can- 
didate for  the  ministry,  shall  have  any  scruple,  with  respect 
to  any  article  or  articles  of  said  Confession,  he  shall,  in  time 
of  making  said  declaration,  declare  his  scruples  to  the 
Synod  or  Presbytery ;  who  shall,  notwithstanding,  admit 
him  to  the  exercise  of  the  ministry,  within  our  bounds,  and 
to  ministerial  communion,  if  the  Synod  or  Presbytery  shall 
judge  his  scruples  not  essential  or  necessary,  in  doctrine, 
worship,  or  government." 

"  The  act  of  Synod  in  1729,  was  the  basis  of  union,"  in 
1758.  But  the  discretionary  powers  of  a  Presbytery,  in 
trying  those  whom  they  are  to  ordain  are  secured  to  them 
by  the  word  of  God,  and  can  neither  be  taken  away  nor 
abandoned. 


PREFATORY.  7 

well  as  passages  like  the  following,  lo  which  they  are 
referred  :  Form  of  Discipline,  Chap.  IV.  4.  Chap. 
V.  5.  7.  13.  14.  15.  Yet  even  these  considerations  will 
be  too  probably  disregarded  by  men  wJio  appear  to 
make  "  the  standards  "  of  all  possible  truth  to  be,  the 
facts  of  theology  as  they  understand  them,  with 
THEIR  philosophy  on  those  facts,  and  their  phraseo- 
logy on  that  philosophy:  without  seeming  to  know 
that  possibly  the  want  of  evangelical  virtue,  rather 
than  the  possession  of  it,  in  a  remarkably  great  de- 
gree, may  be  quite  too  intimately  connected,  with  all 
their  error-scenting  notoriety,  as  the  standing  accusers 
of  their  brethren,  the  lynx-eyed  detecters  of  heresy, 
and  the  fomenters  of  unceasing  discord  in  the  church 
of  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ. 

To  the  Friends  and  Patrons  of  Evangehcal  Institu- 
tions in  our  Country  and  our  Church  ;  more  especially, 
to  the  Presbyterians  of  this  large  and  prosperous 
State,  in  all  the  extent  of  which  Auburn  is  the  only 
School  of  the  Prophets  connected  with  our  own 
denomination ;  and  most  especially,  to  those  few  and 
far-thinking,  as  well  as  generous  individuals — our 
gratitude  is  forbidden  more  directly  to  allude  to  them, 
or  the  public  should  read  their  names  together  with 
their  deeds,  whom  we  must  ever  thank  God  for  promot- 
ing as  the  Benefictors  and  Distinguished  Supporters 
of  this  Seminary:  to  all  the  favorers  on  princi])le,  ofa 
pious,  sound,  educated,  scriptural,  and  accomplished 
ministry,  in  the  church  of  God  and  throughout  the 
whole  world,  as  the  ministry  we  need  ;  this  little 


8  PREFATORY. 

volume,  designed  alone  in  subserviency  to  such  a 
cause,  IS  most  respectfully  inscribed,  with  affec- 
tionate salutations  in  our  glorious  Redeemer,  and 
prayers  for  his  blessing  to  attend  its  course, 

By    its  editor. 

Their  friend  and  brother. 

And  servant  in  the  Gospel, 

Samuel  H.  Cox. 
Jit^urrij  Jugust  3d,  1836. 


JfEIHCSIGII 


I N  A  u  G  u  R:%  L7  E530CO)G  I G  5l  L 


BY  REV,  J.  W.  ADAMS,  A.  M. 
Of  Syracuse,  New-York. 


Acts,  XX.   31. 


By  the  space  of  three  years,  I  ceased  not  to  xoarn  cvei-y  one, 
night  and  day,  with  tears. 

I  place  much  dependence  for  my  discourse 
to  you  on  this  occasion,  upon  the  last  two 
words  in  this  passage.  They  inform  us  in 
one  particular  how  Paul,  as  a  minister  of 
Christ,  did  his  work.     It  was  with  tears. 

No  man  ever  entertained  more  correct 
views  of  the  christian  ministry  than  he,  nor 
did  any  one  ever  discharge  its  responsible 
duties  with  greater  fidelity  or  success.  The 
world  Avould  have  been  evangelized  centuries 
ago,  had  all  who  have  professed  to  be  Paul's 
successors  in  the  ministry  been  anointed  for 
their  work  as  Paul  was. 

He  was  a  learned  Jew  ;  but  it  was  neither 
his  extraction  nor  his  learning  that  gave  him 
his  eminence  in  the  ministry,  for  many  a 


10  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

gentile  has  been  called  of  God  to  the  same 
work,  possessing  stores  of  learning  altogether 
more  extensive  and  varied  than  his. 

He  was  an  apostle,  acting  on  the  authority 
of  an  extraordinary  commission,  and  endowed 
with  supernatural  gifts  and  powers.  His 
extraordinary  commission  however  did  not 
authorize  him  to  preach  an  extraordinary 
gospel,  or  to  enforce  its  claims  by  extraordi- 
nary means.  It  distinguished  him  from  us 
chiefly  by  the  plenary  authority  with  which 
it  clothed  him,  to  adjust  the  ordinances  of 
the  infant  church.  We  preach  the  same 
gospel  which  he  did,  and  we  have  the  same 
facilities  of  giving  it  a  lodgment  in  the  heart, 
which  he  had,  if  we  except  the  demonstra- 
tions of  miraculous  power  that  were  placed 
at  his  disposal.  But  what  use  did  he  make 
of  these,  and  what  ends  were  they  intended 
to  subserve  ?  They  were  simply  visible  con- 
firmations of  the  divine  authority  under 
which  he  acted^  the  bright  signets  which 
Heaven  put  into  his  hands  to  accredit  his 
commission.  But  men  were  converted  un- 
der his  ministry  just  as  they  are  converted 
now ;  not  by  miracles,  but  by  the  Spirit  and 


INAUGURAL   SERMON.  U 

truth  of  God.  He  was,  to  be  sure,  endowed 
with  an  opulence  of  ministerial  gifts,  so  that 
from  that  age  to  this,  the  church  has  not  seen 
his  like.  But  what  gave  him  this  distinctive 
and  radiant  eminence  ?  Not  his  commission 
as  an  apostle,  not  his  vision,  and  revelations, 
and  miracles  ;  but  the  burning  ardor,  the  in- 
vincible energy,  and  the  unparalleled  self- 
devotion  which  he  brought  to  his  work.  In 
these  respects  he  stood  alone  among  apostles, 
and  here  he  holds  a  solitary  prominence 
among  the  stars  that  have  since  been  set  in 
the  firmament  of  the  church.  No  man  has 
ever  bestowed  upon  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity the  same  amount  of  well-directed  zeal, 
exact  fidelity,  untiring  industry,  and  unfal- 
tering courage  that  Paul  did.  The  beamings 
of  his  spirit  are  seen  in  that  small  fragment 
of  his  history  which  I  have  already  recited 
to  you.  "  By  the  space  of  three  years,  I  ceased 
not  to  warn  every  one,  night  and  day,  with 
tears."  This  was  his  contribution  to  a  single 
church.  But  he  spent  thirty-three  years  in 
the  ministry,  and  the  whole  period  was  em- 
ployed just  as  he  had  spent  the  three  years 
at  Ephesus.     What  a  multitude  of  tears  must 


12  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

he  have  shed  in  that  time  !  What  a  victim 
to  emotion  must  have  been  the  manly  spirit 
of  this  flaming  herald  of  the  cross — for  it  is 
manly  to  weep  where  there  is  occasion  for 
weeping  !  The  sensibilities  of  the  heart,  duly 
excited,  are  a  fragrant  atmosphere  investing 
the  soul,  and  shedding  its  soft  and  balmy 
dews  on  its  powers.  They  are  the  silver 
tissues  that  are  woven  into  the  delicate  but 
immortal  texture  of  the  mind.  They  are  the 
electric  fluid  that  pervades  the  regions  of  the 
heart,  throwing  its  subtle  influence  upon  the 
springs  of  thought,  and  shooting  its  lightnings 
through  every  channel  where  the  mind  is 
wont  to  give  expression  to  its  hidden  move- 
ments. 

Our  apostle  could  not,  under  any  circum- 
stances, be  subject  to  a  suspicion  of  mental 
imbecility  or  of  fanatical  weakness,  as  he  was 
under  the  control  of  a  governing  influence 
from  God.  His  tears  came  from  fountains 
which  that  influence  had  opened  and  sanc- 
tified. There  must  however  exist  in  his  mi- 
nistry, independently  of  this  influence,  ade- 
quate and  perceptible  causes  for  them.  These 
causes,  it  is  my  intention,  in  the  sequel  of 


INAUGURAL    SERMON".  13 

this  discourse,  to  bring  out  distinctly  to  your 
view  ;  for  I  have  proposed  to  myself  to  illus- 
trate and  establish  the  following  proposition  ; 
namely, 

That  emotion  in  the  jjreacher  is  necessary 
to  an  effective  and  successful  proclamation 
of  the  word  of  God ; — 

And  also  to  answer  the  following  inquiry : 

By  what  means  may  this  importaiit  attri- 
bute he  secured  to  our  ministry  ?■ 

I  have  however  a  few  preliminary  remarks 
to  oifer ;  and, 

1.  By  emotion  I  do  not  mean  a  pathetic 
tenderness,  or  a  weeping  sensibility,  only  and 
always  pervading  the  bosom ;  but  those  dif- 
ferent states  of  the  affections  which  corre- 
spond with  the  import  of  the  different  themes 
on  which  we  dwell,  and  the  nature  of  the 
varying  circumstances  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded. 

Nor  when  I  speak  of  emotion  do  I  mean 
those  indefinable  impulses,  or  sudden  bursts 
of  animal  feeling  which  sometimes  flood  the 
soul,  carrying  away  the  landmarks  of  reason 
and  thought,  and  leaving  the  mind  to  the 
mercy  of  an  irresistible  tempest  of  passion. 
2 


14  INAUGURAL    SEHMd]^. 

But  I  mean  that  deep  and  holy  movement  of 
the  affections  which  has  been  produced  by 
the  energy  of  truth  understood  and  believed  ■ 
such  a  state  of  the  feehngs  as  corresponds 
with  the  impoj't  of  truth.  When  such  emo- 
tions exist  in  the  preacher's  mind,  they  will 
depict  themselves  in  his  countenance j  and 
find  expression  in  every  look  and  tone  and 
gesture.  They  will  infuse  into  his  manner  an 
earnestness  and  warmth  which  will  leave  to 
the  hearer  no  alternative  but  a  clear  convic- 
tion of  the  perfect  honesty  of  the  speaker's 
heart.  There  will  be  to  his  audience  visible 
demonstrations  of  the  preacher's  faith. 

2.  In  the  economy  of  salvation,  the  natu- 
ral relations  of  thino;s  are  not  overlooked.  All 
the  instruments  and  agencies  which  God 
ordinarily  employs  to  give  efficiency  to  the 
gospel,  have  an  adaj)tedness  in  themselves 
to  accomplish  the  ends  for  which  they  are 
employed.  Hence  the  different  degrees  of" 
success  which  attends  the  ministry  of  good 
men.  One  has  more  and  better  qualifications 
for  his  work  than  the  other.  His  ministry 
has  an  adaptedness  in  it  to  produce  effect 
which  the  ministry  of  the  other  has  not. 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  IB 

The  Spirit  of  God  does  not  employ  our 
agency  to  accomplish  his  purposes  in  the 
renovation  of  human  hearts,  simply  because 
we  are  good  men.  If  he  did,  then  piety 
would  constitute  the  only  qualification  for 
our  work,  and  the  church  might  dispense 
with  the  services  of  an  ordained  and  instruct- 
ed priesthood  altogether.  But  this  would 
accord  neither  with  the  requisitions  of  the 
gospel,  the  demands  of  the  church,  or  the 
nature  of  things.  Such  however  is  not  the 
course  which  God  pursues  in  the  election  of 
agencies  to  carry  forward  his  designs.  He 
employs  appropriate,  and  ordinarily  no  other 
than  those  which  are  seen  by  us  to  be  appro- 
priate instruments,  to  accomplish  his  pur- 
poses of  grace.  Now  we  have  to  remark  that 
emotion  is  necessary  to  render  preaching  such 
an  instrument,  and  without  it,  this  agency 
cannot  possess  the  adaptedness  necessary  to 
give  it  the  greatest  effect  upon  mind.  This 
is  the  aspect  under  which  I  wish  to  present 
the  subject  in  this  discourse. 

3.  A  susceptibility  to  emotion  is  not  the 
only  qualification  which  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel  will  need.    A  slight  practical  acquaint- 


16  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

ance  with  the  difficult  and  responsible  duties 
of  the  ministry  will  teach  a  man,  if  he  has 
not  learnt  it  before,  that  something  besides 
feeling  will  be  requisite  to  qualify  him  skil- 
fully to  handle  the  word  of  God.  He  will 
soon  understand  that  his  office  has  introduced 
him  into  a  sphere  which,  adequately  to  fill, 
would  require  an  angel's  powers,  and  what- 
ever the  resources  of  his  mind  may  be,  he 
will  ever  see  occasion  to  mourn  that  he  has 
drunk  no  deeper  at  the  fountains  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge.  When  therefore  I  speak  of 
the  importance  of  emotion,  let  it  at  no  time 
be  understood  that  I  speak  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  those  other  endowments  for  our  work 
which  are  to  be  derived  only  from  a  thorough 
acquaintance  both  with  secular  and  sacred 
science.  The  great  interests  of  the  church 
are  never  so  jeoparded  as  when  committed  to 
the  care  of  men  who  feel  strongly  but  laiow 
nothing.  But  we  affirm  on  the  other  hand, 
that  not  all  the  endowments  which  the  most 
profound  and  varied  learning  can  give,  will 
render  a  frigid  preacher  of  the  truth  a  suc- 
cessful one.  We  are  prepared  now  to  pro- 
ceed directly  to  a  consideration  of  the  propo- 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  ITj 

sition  which  we  have  announced — That 
emotion  is  necessary  to  an  effective  and  suc- 
cessful dispensation  of  the  word  of  God. 

I.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  themes  on 
lohich  the  preaclier  dwells  demand  emotion^ 
and  are  adapted,  to  inspire  it.  The  minis- 
ter of  Jesus  is  a  legate  of  the  skies.  When 
he  speaks  in  his  official  character,  he  speaks 
for  God,  and  when  he  pleads  with  men,  he 
pleads  with  them  on  the  behalf  of  God .  The 
mission  on  which  he  is  sent  is  one  of  mercy, 
involving  however  the  most  extended  and 
multifarious  interests.  On  the  part  of  God 
he  is  charged  with  the  vindication  of  the 
honors  of  his  throne,  and  the  rights  of  his 
government ;  and  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
high  commission  is  brought  up  to  a  near 
mental  view  of  the  ineffable  glories  of  the 
eternal  Godhead,  and  is  conversant  with 
scenes  and  objects  that  awe  and  thrill  and 
charm  the  heavenly  world.  When  he  pleads 
for  God,  he  is  called  to  a  contemplation  of 
the  most  surprising  benignity,  the  most  inimi- 
table love,  and  the  most  affecting  condescen- 
sion, all  however  misrepresented,  and  abused, 
and  scorned,  in  this  fallen  world  ;  and  when 


18  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

he  pleads  with  man,  he  pleads  with  an  im- 
mortal being,  convicted  of  treason  against 
the  government  of  God,  and  condemned  for 
his  crimes  to  a  state  of  punishment  for  which, 
irrespective  of  the  gospel,  there  is  no  relief, 
and  to  which  there  can  be  no  termination. 
He  meets  him  at  a  moment  when,  for  any 
thing  that  is  known,  the  alternative  is  before 
the  sinner  to  escape  then  or  never  from  im- 
pending ruin.  His  work  with  him  is  the 
work  of  an  ambassador  of  God,  bearing  ac- 
credited conditions  of  pardon,  and  charged 
to  make  the  overture  with  every  testimony 
of  love,  and  every  demonstration  of  concern, 
which  a  creature  is  capable  of  giving,  on  the 
behalf  of  God.  To  find  now  that  his  mes- 
sage meets  with  no  accordant  response  from 
the  sinner's  heart ;  that  the  apathy  of  death 
has  spread  itself  over  all  his  faculties,  or  the 
keen  resentments  of  injured  pride  have  pre- 
pared him  for  aflat  denial  of  the  claims  of  God, 
what  can  be  more  solemn  or  impressive  than 
the  crisis?  What  a  time  to  the  faithful  am- 
bassador, for  the  heavings  of  emotion  and 
the  pleadings  of  love  ?  Can  he  view  such  a 
scene  and  maintain  a  philosophical  compo- 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  19 

sure?  This  is  a  fellow-man,  endowed  with 
the  same  susceptibility  to  pain  and  pleasure 
with  himself.  Must  he  be  shut  out  of  heaven  ? 
Must  he  bear  no  part  in  the  sweet  and  im- 
mortal songs  that  will  be  chanted  in  that 
happy  world  ?  Must  his  eye  ever  weep,  and 
his  bosom  heave  with  grief,  and  the  waves  of 
eternal  sorrow  dash  and  roll  over  his  fright- 
ened and  fainting  spirit  ?  Here  is  a  pardon 
written  out,  and  sealed  with  blood,  bearing 
the  impress  of  the  cross,  and  proffered  on 
terms  the  most  gracious  and  condescending. 
But  he  rejects  it.  It  opens  to  his  soul  the 
only  refuge  from  impending  wrath.  But  he 
refuses  to  embrace  it.  He  is  standing  on  the 
jutting  and  slippery  edge  of  that  deep  abyss 
where  billows  of  fire  are  rolling,  and  the 
slightest  breath  of  God's  anger  may  at  any 
moment  sweep  him  from  his  position,  and 
bury  him  in  the  flood  below.  Has  the  mes- 
seno^er  who  is  sent  to  warn  him  of  his  dangler 
and  plead  with  him  to  escape,  no  reason  for 
emotion  ?  Is  no  occasion  given  to  his  heart 
to  dissolve  and  his  eye  to  weep  ?  The  bene- 
volence of  the  gospel  can  execute  no  com- 
mission like  this,  and  leave  the  heart  unsoft- 
ened  by  its  influence. 


20  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

The  svfferings  of  Christ  are  the  central 
point  from  which  the  bright  beams  of  the 
gospel  all  radiate  and  diverge.  The  preach- 
er of  the  gospel  must  therefore  be  often  at  the 
cross.  He  must  often  look  upon  the  bleeding 
sacrifice,  and  take  account  of  the  doings  of 
that  dreadful  hour  when  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness were  unchained,  and  Christ  was  devoted 
a  victim  to  their  rage.  In  the  circumstances 
attending  the  tragedy  of  his  death— the  treach- 
ery in  which  it  was  commenced,  the  dupli- 
city and  subornation  by  which  it  was  carried 
forward,  and  in  the  barbarous  cruelties  with 
which  the  horrid  scene  was  closed,  there  is 
enough  to  subdue  and  melt  the  hardest  heart. 
But  join  to  these  considerations,  the  perfect 
and  acknowledged  innocence  of  Jesus,  to- 
gether with  the  fact  that  he  was  a  vokmtary 
victim  to  these  tortures,  and  more  than  all, 
endured  them  for  his  mortal  enemies,  not 
excluding  even  the  incarnate  demons  that 
spiked  his  limbs  and  danced  around  his  cross, 
and  who  can  refrain  from  emotion?  Was 
ever  love  like  this — so  pure,  so  comprehen- 
sive, so  vast,  and  yet  burdened  with  such 
sorrows  and  humbled  to  such  a  death  ?    Its 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  21 

achievements  on  the  cross  effected  the  world's 
redemption.  Here  hangs  all  human  hope. 
How  can  we  handle  themes  like  these,  how 
can  we  deal  with  interests  so  interminable 
and  vast,  and  not  be  the  subjects  of  emotion 
sometimes  unutterable,  always  fervid  and 
deep? 

"  The  stupendous  magnitude  of  the  objects 
which  the  Bible  proposes  to  man,  the  incom- 
parable sublimity  of  eternal  pursuits,  the  as- 
tonishing scheme  of  redemption  by  a  Media- 
tor, the  native  grandeur  of  a  rational  and 
immortal  beings  stamped  with  the  impress  of 
God,"  the  ruins  which  sin  has  produced, 
and  the  renovations  which  almighty  grace 
achieves,  open  to  the  preacher  fields  of  vision 
and  thought,  able  to  awe,  and  fire,  and  fill,  and 
sublimate,  the  most  capacious  mind. 

II.  It  is  a  demonstrative  denial  of  the 
truth  and  iinportance  of  our  message  not  to 
have  emotion  in  the  proclamation  of  it.  It 
results  from  the  structure  of  the  human  mind, 
that  truths  believed  will  affect  in  proportion 
to  their  importance.  Who  does  not  look  to 
have  a  convict,  sentenced  to  death  upon  the 
scaffold,  and  before  whose  eyes  the  prepara- 


22  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

tions  for  his  execution  are  going  forward,  agita- 
ted and  convulsed  by  the  prospect  before  him? 
Insensibihty  under  these  circumstances  would 
constitute  undeniable  proof,  either  of  a  moral 
paralysis,  or  of  an  invincible  unbelief  Wheth- 
er it  were  the  one  or  the  other,  all  who  beheld 
him  would  regard  him  as  a  monster  whom 
humanity  should  disown,  or  a  victim  to  de- 
lusion over  whom  humanity  should  weep. 

The  preacher  of  the  gospel  is  conversant 
with  truths  of  the  most  solemn  import  both 
to  himself  and  his  hearers  ;  and  when  as  an 
ambassador  of  God  he  stands  in  the  presence 
of  dying  men  to  give  utterance  and  demon- 
stration to  them,  where  this  side  of  eternity 
could  he  find  a  position  so  fraught  with  re- 
sponsibility, or  surrounded  with  circumstan- 
ces so  solemn  and  affecting  ?  If  standing  as 
he  does,  between  the  living  and  the  dead, 
with  the  world  above  lending  him  its  sym- 
pathies, and  the  world  beneath  plotting  defeat 
to  his  aims — himself  a  messenger  of  God  to 
those  who  are  objects  of  strife  to  both — no 
kindlings  of  interest,  no  throbbings  of  emotion 
are  felt  in  his  bosom,  what  must  angels,  what 
must  devils  think  ?     The  scene  is  one  which 


Inaugural  sermon.  23 

must  strike  with  amazement  the  spectators 
from  both  worlds.  But  a  more  solemn  con- 
sideration is  the  effect  which  his  apathy  must 
have  upon  those  to  whom  he  addresses  his 
message.  For  these,  what  remains  but  to 
deduce  the  conclusion,  either  that  the  gospel 
is  a  fabrication,  or  the  man  who  proclaims  it, 
a  traitor  to  his  trust  ?  Whichever  alternative 
is  taken,  the  avenues  of  conviction  will  be 
closed,  and  the  dominion  of  impenitence  be 
rendered  more  settled  and  severe. 

Let  a  philosophical  indifference  surround 
the  man  who  undertakes  to  speak  in  the  name 
of  God  to  his  dying  fellow-creatures  on  the 
concerns  of  eternity ;  let  a  dozing  apathy  in- 
fuse itself  into  his  manner,  or  let  him  talk 
and  act  like  one  who  has  only  a  professional 
task  to  perform,  and  what  can  save  his  mes- 
sage from  the  influence  of  a  counter  testimo- 
ny, drawn  directly  from  the  living  example 
of  its  inefUcacy,  standing  before  their  eyes  J 
Under  these  circumstances  it  will  be  obvious 
to  his  hearers,  that  he  neither  believes  what 
he  saySj  nor  is  concerned  to  have  them  be- 
lieve it.  Not  only  will  he  not  commend 
himself  to  the  conscience,  but  he  will  bring 


24  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

the  influence  of  his  experience  to  bear  against 
the  truth  of  his  message.  Who  can  tell  upon 
how  many  minds  the  chains  of  impenitence 
have  been  riveted  fast  and  for  ever,  by  such 
preaching,  even  where  truth,  and  truth  only, 
has  been  proclaimed? 

A  man  is  said  to  have  been  despatched  by 
the  citizens  of  a  certain  town,  to  a  neighboring 
city,  to  obtain  help  to  extinguish  a  fire.  He 
went  in  haste  ;  but  when  he  arrived  there, 
he  adjusted  his  spirit  to  a  temperature  of  very 
great  deliberation  that  he  might  courteously 
address  his  friends.  He  then  enquired  as 
usual  after  their  welfare,  and  interchanged 
with  them  the  civilities  that  are  common  on 
occasion  of  meeting  friends.  His  attention 
was  next  diverted  to  a  piece  of  mechanism 
that  stood  by,  which  he  very  deliberately  ex- 
amined. After  this  he  turned  himself  to  those 
around  him,  and  without  betraying  the  least 
emotion,  announced  to  them  the  object  of  his 
visit,  and  desired  that  they  would,  as  soon  as 
their  convenience  would  allow,  despatch  the 
assistance  necessary  to  extinguish  the  fire. 
It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  story  was  re- 
garded as  a  fabrication,  and  his  request  treat- 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  25 

ed  iis  all  idle  whim.  The  town,  in  conse- 
(|uence,  was  left  to  be  consumed  to  ashes. 
Now  let  me  ask,  what  Avas  wanting  to  obtain 
credit  for  the  story  which  he  told?  Only 
the  evidence  of  strong  emotion.  Had  he  acted 
like  a  man  who  was  nnder  the  influence  of 
a  perfect  faith  in  the  truth  of  his  own  testi- 
mony, others  would  have  believed  him,  and 
he  would  have  obtained  the  thing  that  he 
desired.  But  his  indifference  converted  truth 
into  falsehood,  and  what  was  at  first  only 
ignorance  in  his  hearers,  became  at  last  an 
obstinate  incredulity.  So  the  truths  of  the 
gospel,  solemn  and  momentous  as  they  are, 
degenerate  into  idle  tales  in  the  hands  of  a 
speculative  and  heartless  ministry.  "  Why," 
said,  an  eminent  divine  to  Garrick  the  trage- 
dian, "  why  do  we  who  preach  the  solemn 
truths  of  Christianity  have  so  few  to  hear  or 
believe  us,  while  you  who  deal  only  in  fiction 
have  weeping  throngs  continually  hanging 
on  your  lips?"  '•  The  reason  is,"  replied  the 
actor,  "you  represent  truth  as  fiction,  we 
represent  fiction  as  truth." 

III.   The  advantages  ithich  truth  has  in 
the  hands  of  a  living  preacher  over  the  same 
3 


26  INAUGURAL    SERIVION". 

Irilth  oil  the  "pages  of  inspiration^  consist 
onainly  in  the  power  which  the  preacher  pos^ 
sesses  of  giving  expression  to  the  various 
emotions  which  truth  is  adapted  to  inspire. 
On  the  pages  of  the  Bible  truth  has  only  an 
historical  or  abstract  existence.  In  the  per- 
son of  its  heralds,  it  has  form  and  motion  and 
life  and  speech.  In  them  its  spirit  has  ex- 
pression, and  all  its  divine  lineaments  are 
drawn  out  in  living  beauty,  and  the  impress 
of  its  lovely  image  is  seen  beaming  from  the 
preacher's  eye.  Through  this  medium  a 
sympathy  is  begotten  in  the  mind  of  the  hear- 
er with  the  things  of  another  world.  Preju- 
dices are  dissolved,  and  indifference  broken 
up,  and  truth  is  brought  in  contact  with  the 
heart,  and  the  interests  of  the  mind  are  insen- 
sibly aroused,  and  unseen  agencies  open  a 
pathway  into  the  recesses  of  the  soul  for  the 
entrance  of  light  and  truth.  These  are  among 
the  primary  reasons  why  preaching,  and  not 
the  inanimate  page  of  revelation,  has  been 
constituted  the  grand  instrument  of  conver- 
sion to  God.  It  possesses  an  adaptedness  to 
accomplish  this  end  which  the  Bible  does  not, 
and  the  Bible  alone,  though  circulated  through 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  27 

the  wide  world,  would  never  bring  its  popu- 
lation to  God.  The  power  residing  in  the 
human  voice  and  countenance  to  give  ex- 
pression to  the  varying  emotions  of  the  mind, 
is  that  chiefly  which  imparts  to  it  this  supe- 
riority. 

IV.  It  is  true  in  jjoint  of  fact  ^  that  those 
preachers  u-ho  have  been  distinguished  for 
this  characteristic  have  been  far  more  snc- 
cessful  than  otJicrs.  There  is  an  extraordi- 
nary unction  and  power  attending  the  preach- 
ing of  our  own  day.  There  is  scarcely  any 
portion  of  mind  within  the  limits  of  Christen- 
dom that  has  not  been  waked  and  moved  by 
it.  Unnumbered  revivals  of  religion,  attend- 
ed with  great  power,  and  bringing  multitudes 
of  converts  to  Christ,  have  followed  it ;  and 
the  church  has  been  consolidated,  and  roused, 
and  strengthened,  and  marshalled  to  efficient 
and  systematic  action,  by  its  influence.  But 
what  is  the  prominent  featnre  by  which  the 
ministry  of  the  present  day  is  distinguished 
from  that  of  other  and  less  favored  periods  of 
the  church  ?  Not  intellectual  vigor,  or  men- 
tal furniture,  but  in  the  fire  and  unction  of 
its  eloquence.     It  is  a  practical  and  impas- 


28  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

sioned  ministry,  trained  to  action  and  baptized 
into  the  spirit  of  its  mission.  We  cannot 
here  call  your  attention  to  the  comparative 
merits  of  individuals  among:  our  cotempora- 
ries.  But  we  may  take  a  comparative  view 
of  the  separate  organizations  of  the  church. 
Where  has  preaching  exerted  its  widest 
and  most  captivating  influence  ?  Among  the 
Methodists  in  America,  and  the  Welch  Pres- 
byterians in  England.  The  eloquence  of  the 
Welch  pulpit  is  stately,  but  impassioned,  and 
for  a  long  period  has  been  celebrated  for  its 
persuasive  and  enchanting  powers.  Its  in- 
fluence is  felt  upon  every  grade  of  mind,  and 
it  has  given  to  the  gospel  the  most  complete 
and  signal  triumphs  which  it  has  any  where 
achieved  in  modern  times.  But  the  distin- 
guishing feature  of  the  Welch  pulpit  is  emo- 
tion. 

It  was  once  remarked  of  the  preachers  of 
the  Methodist  church,  by  a  learned  infidel, 
that  were  they  only  panoplied  in  the  literary 
armor  which  is  worn  by  the  preachers  of 
certain  other  sects,  they  would  in  five  years 
make  a  conquest  of  the  world ; — an  indiffer- 
ent compliment  indeed  to  the  intelligence  of 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  29 

its  ministry,  but  honorable  in  the  highest  de- 
gree to  the  unction  and  energy  with  which  it 
is  endowed. 

If  we  pass  now  to  other  periods  of  the 
church,  you  shall  find  them  fraught  with 
illustrations  of  the  same  truth.  Who  among 
the  cotemporaries  of  Whitfield  will  wear  in 
heaven  a  crown  studded  with  more  or  bright- 
er gems  than  he  ?  But  what  were  the  pecu- 
liar attributes  of  his  preaching?  Lucid  illus- 
tration and  fervid  thought.  The  magic  power 
of  his  eloquence  resided  in  the  inimitable 
pathos  that  was  breathed  into  it. 

Baxter  was  called  the  apostle  of  his  age, 
and  Barrow  the  Shakspeare  of  the  church. 
The  former  was  a  weeping  prophet,  the  lat- 
ter a  learned  and  stately  divine.  Both  of 
them  were  good  men  ;  but  I  had  rather  wear 
the  crown  that  will  press  the  brow  of  Baxter 
in  heaven,  than  that  which  will  adorn  the 
head  of  his  eloquent  and  gifted  cotemporary. 

Go  on  to  the  age  of  the  apostles.  Wlien 
was  the  church  ever  served  by  such  a  minis- 
try, or  the  world  so  agitated  and  moved  by 
the  operations  of  twelve  honest  men  ?  They 
were  without  patronage,  or  wealth,  or  learn- 
3* 


30  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

ing,*  or  friends,  but  their  voice  reached  the 
ear  of  kings,  and  carried  troubled  thought 
into  their  bosoms,  and  shook  their  thrones, 
and  electrified  the  nations,  and  changed  the 
spirit  and  customs  of  the  age.  "  The  weapons 
of  their  warfare  were  not  carnal,  but  mighty 
through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong 
holds."  The  power  of  God's  truth  seemed 
to  be  concentrated  in  their  hands,  and  wher- 
ever they  wielded  this  sword  of  heavenly 
temper  it ''  pierced  to  the  dividing  asunder  of 
soul  and  spirit."  "  They  so  spake  the  wordj 
that  multitudes,  both  of  the  Jews  and  also  of 
the  Greeks"  and  other  gentiles,  believed. 
What  was  the  secret  of  their  success  ?  After 
the  demonstrations  of  the  Spirit  which  at- 
tended their  preaching,  and  upon  which  all 
success  depends,  it  was  the  artless  manner  in 
which  they  told  the  story  of  the  cross,  and 
the  honest  fervor  with  which  they  bore  their 
testimony  to  its  collateral  and  dependent 
truths.     They  were  men  whose  spirit  was 

*When  I  say  they  were  without  learning,  I  do 
not  mean  that  tliey  were  novices,  having  no  suitable 
qualifications  for  their  work,  but  that  they  were  not 
profoundly  schooled  in  the  science  of  the  nge. 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  31 

fired  and  filled  with  the  import  of  their  solemn 
message.  They  went  forth  burdened  with 
the  magnitude  of  their  work,  keeping  their 
eye  on  the  consequences  of  their  ministry, 
and  remembering  always,  that  "  they  w^ere 
unto  God  a  sweet  savor  of  Christ,  in  them 
that  are  saved,  and  in  them  that  perish ;  to 
the  one  the  savor  of  death  unto  death,  to  the 
other,  the  savor  of  life  unto  life."'  No  won- 
der that  the  chiefest  of  them  all  should  have 
exclaimed,  under  the  pressure  of  these  over- 
whelming responsibilities, ''  Who  is  sufficient 
for  these  things  V 

The  ministry  of  the  prophets  was  charac- 
terized by  the  same  spirit.  '•  O,"  said  one  of 
them,  when  contemplating  the  sins  and  the 
afflictions  of  the  church,  "  O  that  my  head 
were  waters,  and  mine  eyes  a  fountain  of 
tears,  that  I  might  weep  day  and  night  for  the 
slain  of  the  daughter  of  my  people :"  and 
when  he  saw  how  the  people  turned  away 
their  ear  from  hearing  the  law,  he  exclaimed 
in  the  lanauaofe  of  unaflfected  OTief — "  But  if 
ye  will  not  hear  it,  my  soul  shall  weep  in  se- 
cret places  for  your  pride."  And  as  though 
it  were  the  appropriate  business  of  the  Lord's 


32  IN'AUGURAL    SERMON. 

prophets  to  weep,  he  directed  one  of  them  to 
bear  this  message  to  his  companions — "  Let 
the  priests,  the  ministers  of  the  Lord,  weep 
between  the  porch  and  the  altar,  and  let  them 
say,  Spare  thy  people,  O  Lord,  and  give  not 
thine  heritage  to  reproach,  that  the  heathen 
should  rule  over  them." 

But  we  have  higher  authority  with  which 
to  urge  the  claims  of  our  subject  than  the 
example  of  apostles  or  prophets.  Our  Lord, 
who  was  consecrated  to  an  unchangeable 
priesthood,  and  held  the  stars  of  the  churches 
in  his  right  hand,  was  for  a  season  the  herald 
of  his  own  gospel.  "  He  was  anointed,"  he 
tells  us, "  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  meek — 
to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the 
opening  of  the  prison  doors  to  them  that  are 
bound — to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord,  and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our 
God."  He  executed  his  commission  like  one 
who  perfectly  comprehended  its  import,  with 
all  the  amazing  consequences  that  were  to 
result  from  it.  Well  might  his  disciples,  when 
they  saw  with  what  inextinguishable  ardor 
he  prosecuted  his  work,  call  to  mind  what 
had  been  written  of  him  in  the  prophets— 


INAUGURAL    SERMOX.  33 

"  The  zeal  of  thine  house  hath  eaten  me  up.*' 
As  a  preacher  he  was  simple,  grave,  and  pun- 
gent, developing  fully  the  emotions  of  his 
mind,  and  always  leaving  with  his  hearers 
undoubted  evidence  of  the  perfect  benevo- 
lence of  his  heart.  Who  could  have  stood 
nnawed,  and  faced  the  lightnings  that  flashed 
from  his  eye,  when,  roused  in  spirit,  he 
encountered  the  captious  and  hypocritical 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  wo  after  wo  was 
thundered  from  his  lips  ? — Or  who  could  have 
remained  unmoved,  under  the  soft  beamings 
of  that  radiant  countenance,  when  dissolved 
into  pity,  he  threw  his  weeping  eye  over  the 
blood-stained  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  exclaimed 
in  view  of  its  approaching  doom — "  If  thou 
hadst  known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy 
day,  the  things  that  belong  to  thy  peace,  but 
now  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes."  As  a 
preacher,  never  man  spake  or  felt  like  Christ. 
V.  The  condition  of  onr  hearers  is  such 
as  calls  for  emotion.  This  topic  I  have  al- 
ready, to  some  extent,  illustrated.  I  shall 
therefore  here  loarely  remark,  that  in  the  pre- 
sent state  of  the  world,  the  preacher  of  the 
gospel  may  oro  where  he  will,  and  preach  to 


34  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

whom  he  will,  his  eye  must  rest  on  the  coun- 
tenances of  some,  of  whom  it  will  be  impossi- 
ble not  to  augur  sorrowful  things  for  them 
in  another  world.  He  must  see  and  speak 
to  those  who,  though  accountable  to  God,  and 
destined  to  an  immortal  existence,  are  yet 
neglecting  the  concerns  of  their  souls,  and 
to  whom  he  must  entertain  the  most  painful 
apprehensions  that  his  ministry  will  prove 
only  a  savor  of  death  unto  death.  To  know 
certainly,  while  he  is  mingling  with  them, 
and  making  the  overtures  of  mercy  to  them^ 
that  in  a  little  season  he  7riust  meet  them  at 
the  bar  of  God,  and  may  there  take  up  a  wail- 
ing over  them  as  he  sees  them  going  out  from 
the  presence  of  the  Lord  to  dwell  with  devils 
and  to  be  consumed  with  fires,  must  touch 
the  heart  that  is  not  made  of  flint.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  he  do  but  succeed  in  rousing 
them  up  from  their  delirious  dreams,  and  in 
bringing  them  on  to  the  foundations  of  hope^ 
with  what  exulting  joy  must  he  anticipate  the 
coronation  day,  when  he  shall  meet  the  ran- 
somed spirits,  and  the  harps  of  gold  shall  be 
strung  to  their  sweetest  notes,  and  the  crown 
all  studded  and  lustrous  with  these  immortal 


tNAUGURAL    SERMON.  35 

r^ems,  sliall  be  set  upon  his  temples  by  tlie 
hand  of  Christ. 

VI.  The  Spirit  of  God,  as  a  sanctifying 
ngent^  exerts  hispotver  chiefl.y  upon  the  affec- 
tions^ V)hich  are  the  great  sources  of  emotion. 
*'  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  orentleness,  goodness,"  and  like 
excellencies. 

It  is  not  the  grand  fault  of  human  nature, 
that  it  has  no  mental  perception  of  truth,  but 
that  the  affections  do  not  correctly?-  and  ade- 
quately respond  to  its  imports  It  is  a  main 
design  of  the  inhabitation  of  the  Spirit  to  cor- 
rect this  evil,  and  under  its  influence  the  af- 
fections are  not  only  diverted  from  forbidden 
to  lawful  objects,  but  they  are  rendered  alto- 
gether more  sensitive  and  vigorous  than  they 
were  before.  It  cannot  therefore  happen,  that 
tiie  m.an  whose  heart  is  duly  subjected  to  this 
influence,  shall  have  the  sublime  and  thrilling 
truths  of  revelation  brought  in  continual  con- 
tact with  his  mind,  and  yet  be  the  subject  of 
no  corresponding  emotions.  The  thing  is 
impossible  both  in  philosophy  and  religion. 
But  has  the  experience  of  Christ's  ministers 
corresponded  with  the  truth  of  our  doctrine  ? 


3(j  INAUGURAL    .SERMON. 

Doubtless  it  has,  so  far  as  their  experience? 
has  corresponded  with  the  requisitions  of  the 
gospel.  Look  at  a  single  instance.  Stephen 
is  described  as  having  been  a  man  full  of  faith 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  As  a  consequence, 
his  adversaries  were  unable  to  resist  the  wis- 
dom and  the  spirit  by  which  he  spake.  And 
if  the  countenance  be  regarded  as  a  true  in- 
dex of  the  heart,  what  celestial  impulses  must 
have  throbbed  in  his  bosom,  at  the  moment 
when  "ail  that  sat  in  the  council,  looking 
steadfastly  on  him,  saw  his  face  as  it  had  been 
the  face  of  an  angel?"  The  mind  of  this 
illustrious  saint,  speaking  through  "  the  glory 
of  his  countenance,"  carried  burning  thoughts 
into  the  bosoms  of  his  accusers  and  judges, 
and  they  were  awed  by  the  unearthly  radi- 
ance that  beamed  in  his  face,  more  than  by 
the  divine  eloquence  that  flowed  from  his  lips. 

We  pass  now  to  a  brief  consideration  of 
the  enquiry  connected  with  this  discussion — 
How  may  the  important  attribute  of  which 
Ave  have  been  speaking  be  secured  to  the 
ministry  ? 

We  have  one  remark  to  offer  before  fur- 
nishing a  direct  reply : — If  there  be  any  whose 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  37 

natural  temperaments  are  so  dull  and  phleg- 
matic that  their  affections  can  by  no  labor  be 
disciplined  into  easy  and  powerful  action,  we 
advise  them  never  to  enter  the  ministry.  They 
may  be  more  useful  in  any  other  sphere.  Now 
to  the  enquiry  we  reply — 

1.  Faith  is  the  main  spring  of  all  true 
emotion.  There  may  be  sensibility  and  the 
excitements  of  feeling  without  it,  but  no  deep 
and  intelligent  movement  of  the  affections. 
All  excitement  produced  in  any  other  way, 
will  be  evanescent  as  the  morning  dews. 

Faith  brings  down  to  the  direct  view  and 
intimate  fellowship  of  the  mind,  the  things 
that  are  unseen  and  eternal.  It  gives  to  the 
declarations  of  God,  on  subjects  that  are  be- 
yond the  cognizance  of  sense  and  reason,  the 
influence,  and  the  power  of  conviction,  be- 
longing to  experimental  truths.  Let  the 
preacher  then  have  faith ;  let  him  credit  the 
truth  of  the  message  which  he  bears ;  let  him 
believe  in  the  actual  presence,  the  spotless 
purity  and  the  infinite  knowledge  of  God ; 
4 


38  INAUGURAL    SERMOK. 

in  short  let  his  faith  bring  down  to  his  view 
the  judgment  day  with  its  awful  grandeur^ 
its  terrific  scenes,  and  its  changeless  issues, 
and  he  will  have  emotion.  He  will  feel  and 
speak  like  one  whose  hands  are  ready  to  be 
grasped  with  those  of  his  impenitent  hearers 
in  the  weeping  adieus  of  the  judgment. 

2.  The  preacher  of  the  gospel  must  enter- 
tain profound  and  practical  views  of  truth,  if 
he  would  feel  an  adequate  and  uniform  inte- 
rest in  his  work.  The  great  sources  of  truth 
are  the  word  and  works  of  God.  Here  the 
perfections  of  the  Deity  are  disclosed.  In 
these,  the  demonstrations  of  his  Godhead  are 
made,  and  the  glories  of  his  infinite  mind 
unfolded.  But  the  Bible  demands  the  preach- 
er's first  and  chief  attention.  This  is  the 
telescope  through  which  the  eye  of  his  faith 
penetrates  into  distant  worlds,  and  examines 
with  minute  attention  the  character  and  em- 
ployments of  their  inhabitants,  and  brings 
back  a  true  report  of  the  laws  and  statutes 
and  statistics  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  a  glorious 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  39 

luminary,  hung  ont  from  the  moral  heavens 
by  God's  own  liand,  designed  to  iUumine  the 
benighted  footsteps  of  men  on  their  journey 
to  eternity.  The  book  embodies  the  wisdom 
of  the  eternal  mind,  and  every  truth  which 
it  contains  is  a  gem  sent  to  us  from  the  celes- 
tial world,  and  our  riches  are  all  treasured  up 
in  it.  The  Bible  is  therefore  filled  with  truths 
of  such  vast  interest  to  us,  drawn  from  foun- 
tains so  deep,  and  affecting  relations  so  wide 
and  sacred,  that  it  is  the  proper  business  of 
life  to  study  it,  and  if  we  study  and  believe 
it,  we  shall  feel  its  pervading  influence  on 
every  power  and  passion  of  the  soul.  No 
superficial  acquaintance  however  with  this 
volume,  will  answer  the  end  which  we  have 
here  in  view.  It  must  be  studied,  prayerfully, 
critically,  and  habitually  studied,  or  many  of 
its  divine  beauties  will  forever  be  concealed 
from  our  view,  and  the  freshness  which  rests 
on  its  pages  gradually  give  place  to  the  dull 
monotony  of  a  cheap  and  tiresome  familiarity. 
But  our  work  with  the  Scriptures  is  not  done 


40  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

when  we  have  ascertained  their  original  im- 
port. There  is  another  and  higher  object  still 
to  be  attained,  and  that  is,  to  imbibe  the  spirit, 
and  put  ourselves  in  possession  of  the  practi- . 
cal  bearings,  of  the  text.  Until  this  is  done 
the  Scriptures  will  be  a  dead  letter  to  us,  and 
we  may  study  them  forever,  and  bring  to  their 
interpretation  the  richest  stores  of  learning 
and  the  finest  powers  of  criticism,  we  shall 
know  nothing  of  them  as  we  ought  to  know. 
But  whoever  studies  them  to  learn  his  duty, 
to  discipline  the  aiFections  of  his  heart,  and 
expand  his  views  of  the  character  and  works 
of  God,  shall  find  himself  the  subject  of  an 
influence  that  will  fire  his  soul  and  endow  it 
with  an  energy  irresistible  and  divine. 

3.  Great  advantage  may  be  derived  from 
a  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  writings  of 
such  men  as  Leighton,  Baxter,  Howe,  Ed- 
wards, and  Payson.  Purer  and  brighter  spi- 
rits have  never  been  lodged  in  tenements  of 
clay.  Some  of  them  possessed  gigantic  pow- 
ers of  mind,  and  were  brilliant  luminaries  in 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  41 

tlie  world  of  science  and  letters.  All  of  them 
'•  walked  with  God,"  and  held  familiar  and 
continual  intercourse  with  Heaven.  In  their 
writings  we  have  the  productions  of  mature 
and  sanctified  minds,  enriched  by  the  results 
derived  from  a  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  power  of  Christianity,  and  disclosing  to 
our  view  the  workings  of  the  heart,  when 
subjected  to  the  ascendant  influence  of  grace. 
It  is  impossible  to  be  familiar  with  their  wri- 
tings without  having  a  glow  of  holy  emula- 
tion kindled  in  our  bosoms,  and  experiencing, 
to  some  extent  at  least,  an  assimilation  in 
temper  and  habit  to  them. 

4.  Parochial  labors  faithfully  performed, 
will  strongly  tend  to  sustain  and  deepen  the 
interest  which  we  feel  in  our  work.  These 
employments,  by  bringing  us  into  direct  con- 
tact with  the  diversified  conditions  of  society, 
and  giving  us  familiar  access  to  the  hearts  of 
our  people,  will  enable  us  to  ascertain,  mi- 
nutely and  accurately,  the  true  condition  of 
the  souls  committed  to  our  charge,  and  the 
4* 


42  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

actual  success  of  our  ministry  among  them. 
This  intercourse  will  daily  bring  to  our  know- 
ledge facts  of  the  most  interesting  character, 
calculated  to  impress  us  with  a  just  sense  of 
the  importance  of  our  work,  and  to  give  us 
more  enlarged  and  affecting  views  of  the 
solemn  responsibility  which  it  involves.  No- 
thing can  more  strongly  tend  to  keep  a  fresh 
and  increasing  interest  glowing  over  the  field 
of  our  labors. 

5.  To  qualify  us  to  speak  to  others  in  a 
spirit  that  shall  commend  our  message  to 

hem,  and  reflect  honor  upon  the  Master  whom 
we  serve,  it  will  be  necessary  that  we  make 
a  previous  self-application  of  the  truths  which 
we  bear  to  them.  This  exercise  will  prepare 
us  to  sympathize  with  our  hearers,  and  I  may 
add,  to  sympathize  with  God,  as  it  will  imbue 
our  hearts  with  the  spirit  of  our  message  and 
prepare  us  not  only  to  speak  the  truth  in  love, 
but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
power. 

6.  I  am  constrained  to  remark,  that  in  my 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  43 

jiidgmentj  habits  of  extemporaneous  delivery 
will  contribute  an  important  advantage  for 
securing  to  our  preaching  the  attribute  of 
emotion.  Not  only  are  both  mind  and  body 
sometimes  jaded  into  a  state  of  lassitude  by 
the  severe  mechanical  toil  that  attends  the 
habitual  preparation  for  manuscriptal  preach- 
ing, but  when  we  come  to  the  labors  of  the 
pulpit,  there  is  neither  room  nor  demand  for 
those  energetic  workings  of  the  mind  which 
are  required  in  extemporaneous  delivery. 
The  advantages  also  which  are  to  be  derived 
from  the  immediate  circumstances  of  the  oc- 
casion, such  as  the  varying  emotions  which 
will  find  expression  in  the  countenance  of  the 
hearer,  are  nearly  lost  upon  one  who  is  pledged 
beforehand  to  a  certain  train  of  thought,  and 
can  employ  only  the  language  in  which  it  is 
already  clothed.  But  there  are  imminent  dan- 
gers to  be  avoided  by  those  who  Avould  adopt 
this  mode  of  preaching.  It  were  better  to 
write  and  re-write  every  word  we  have  to  say, 
than  to  fall  into  those  loose  and  lazy  mental 


44  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

liabits,  which  characterize  very  many  of  the 
extemporaneous  preachers  of  the  present  day. 
This  is  an  evil  which  all  the  advantages  to 
be  derived  from  extemporaneous  preaching 
cannot  counterbalance.  But  it  is  an  evil 
which  may  be  avoided,  and  one  for  which 
there  can  neither  be  excuse  nor  apology. 
Whatever  our  mode  of  preaching  may  be,  to 
secure  efficiency  and  power  to  our  ministry, 
it  will  be  absolutely  necessary  that  we  study 
much  and  write  much.  It  will  be  impossible 
that  we  should  be  either  long  or  extensively 
useful  in  any  other  way. 

To  render  habits  of  extemporaneous  preach- 
ing easy  and  natural,  it  will  only  be  necessary 
that  the  student  address  himself  to  the  attain- 
ment of  the  art  simultaneously  with  the  com- 
mencement of  his  other  studies  ;  and  pursue 
it  as  he  pursues  them,  with  a  systematic  and 
untiring  diligence,  and  he  will  have  maturity 
in  it  when  he  has  maturity  in  them.  Thus 
the  error  will  be  avoided  of  making  room  for 
this  habit  by  breaking  down  the  established 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  45 

dominion  of  older  ones,  and  of  sacrificing  to 
its  feeble  existence  the  concord  and  fellowship 
which  should  always  exist  among  them.  Let 
students  then  not  shun,  as  they  sometimes  do, 
but  let  them  court  the  drilling  of  professional 
skill,  to  secure  to  them  this  most  important 
and  useful  acquisition.  After  they  have  once 
entered  the  field  of  their  labors,  they  will 
never  regret  any  sacrifices  of  time  or  patience 
which  they  have  made  to  acquire  it. 

Finally ;  To  give  an  efficient  and  sacred 
unction  to  our  ministry,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  accompany  it  continually  with  prayer.  God 
is  the  source,  and  the  only  source,  whence  an 
influence  adequate  to  this  purpose  can  be  de- 
rived. A  holy  fervor  in  his  work  is  the  result 
of  an  internal  anointing  of  his  Spirit.  The 
flame  must  be  kindled  at  the  altar  of  prayer, 
and  there  alone  can  it  be  kept  burning.  He 
who  begins,  continues,  and  ends  his  labors  in 
prayer,  shall  assuredly  have  occasion  to  re- 
joice in  the  last  day,  that  he  has  neither  run 
in  vain  nor  labored  in  vain.     God  will  own 


46  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

his  ministry,  and  clothe  it  with  power  and 
salvation. 

The  Theological  Institution  established  in 
this  place,  was  founded  for  the  purpose  of  giv- 
ing to  the  church  such  a  ministry  as  we  have 
now  imperfectly  described,  and  under  the  su- 
pervision of  its  experienced  Faculty,  has  done 
all  hitherto,  which  learning,  piety,  and  the 
most  indefatigable  industry  could  accomplish. 
Some  of  its  graduates  are  now  occupying  posts 
of  the  highest  responsibility  in  the  church  at 
home  ;  some  are  traversing  the  wide  wilder- 
ness of  our  country,  preaching  the  gospel  of 
the  kingdom  to  its  scattered  and  fainting  po- 
pulation ;  and  others  still  are  toiling  on  hea- 
then shores,  breaking  the  bread  of  life  to  them 
that  sit  in  darkness  and  in  the  region  and  sha- 
dow of  death.  Were  the  institution  from  this 
moment  to  cease  its  operations  and  pass  out  of 
existence,  both  the  church  on  earth  and  the 
church  in  heaven  would  have  occasion  for- 
ever to  render  grateful  praise  to  that  benefi- 
cent Providence  which  brought  it  into  being. 


INAUGURAL    SERMON.  47 

But  the  task  of  sustaining  its  interests  and 
of  discharging  the  difficult  and  compUcated 
duties  connected  with  its  internal  manage- 
ment, has  been  hitherto  toilsome  and  onerous 
to  a  degree  that  has  loudly  called  for  relief. 
The  venerable  men  who  have  shouldered  this 
burden,  have  borne  it  without  repining,  but  not 
without  great  sacrifices  of  health  and  comfort. 

The  present  occasion  should  therefore  be 
one  of  lively  interest  and  of  joyful  congratu- 
lation to  all  the  friends  of  Zion,  not  only  as  it 
gives  to  one  of  her  most  eminent  and  venera- 
ble institutions,  an  accession  of  talent,  learn- 
ing, and  experience,  which  cannot  fail  to 
deepen  the  channels  through  which  its  re- 
freshing streams  are  flowing  out  to  the  church, 
but  as  it  brings  relief  to  the  men  who  have, 
so  to  speak,  for  her  sake,  jeoparded  their  lives 
in  the  high  places  of  the  field. 

We  meet  on  this  occasion,  solemnly  and 
officially  to  induct  into  office,  one  who  has 
been  chosen  by  the  competent  authority  to  fill 
the  chair  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and  Pastoral 


48  INAUGURAL    SERMON. 

Theology  in  this  seminary  of  sacred  science. 
He  brings  with  him  the  experience  of  a  long 
and  successful  ministry,  exercised  on  one  of 
the  lofty  and  beauteous  eminences  of  Zion  ; 
and,  associated  with  the  talent  and  experience 
and  piety  of  his  distinguished  colleagues,  will 
contribute,  we  trust,  to  swell  that  mighty  river 
of  salvation,  the  streams  whereof  are  making 
glad  the  city  of  our  God. 

The  post  to  which  he  is  called  is  a  respon- 
sible one,  as  it  gives  in  special  charge  to  him 
to  piould  and  train  the  practical  and  preach- 
ing talent  of  our  youth.  God  grant  him  a 
fresh  and  copious  anointing  of  the  Spirit,  that 
distant  places  and  distant  times  may  have  oc- 
casion to  bless  that  Providence  which  lead 
him  to  unite  his  destinies  with  those  of  this 
sacred  institution. 

Brethren  in  the  ministry  and  members  of 
the  churches : 

This  institution  will  need  and  must  have 
our  patronage  and  our  prayers.  The  smiles 
of  Divine  Providence  are  indeed  beaming 


INAUGURAL   SERMON.  49 

sweetly  upon  it  now,  but  they  will  not  long 
continue  to  do  so,  unless  its  interests  be  em- 
balmed in  the  affections  and  nurtured  by  the 
prayers  of  the  church.  Whatever  talent,  or 
learning,  or  piety,  or  zeal,  may  fill  its  chairs  of 
instruction  and  of  internal  police,  it  will  cer- 
tainly never  prosper  independently  of  God's 
blessing  and  the  patronage  of  the  church.  The 
relations  therefore  which  we  hold  to  it  are 
solenm  and  responsible.  Shall  it  languish  on 
our  hands  ?  When  a  cry  for  the  labors  of  the 
heralds  of  the  cross  is  borne  to  our  ears  on 
every  breeze,  and  whole  nations  are  dying  in 
utter  ignorance  of  the  way  of  salvation,  shall 
this  institution  be  suffered  to  wane  and  falter 
for  want  of  our  patronage  and  our  prayers  1 
God  forbid.  Let  us  not  cease  then  to  bear  its 
interests  to  the  throne  of  grace ;  and  let  us 
by  every  means  labor  to  enlarge  the  sphere  of 
its  usefulness,  and  may  God  grant  that  its  in- 
fluence may  be  felt  through  all  time,  to  the 
joy  of  millions  of  immortal  minds,  redeemed 
and  saved  through  its  instrumentality. 
5 


INAUGURAL   CHARGE. 


BY  ELIAKIM  PHELPS,  A.  M. 

Of  Geneva,  N.  York. 


My  Dear  Brother, 

The  station  which  in  the  providence  of 
God  you  are  now  called  to  occupy,  is  one  of 
high  and  peculiar  responsibility.  You  are 
to  take  your  stand  here  at  this  fountain  of 
christian  and  ministerial  influence,  and  in 
connection  with  your  associates  in  office  to 
give  direction  to  the  streams  which  it  is  to 
send  forth  either  to  fertilize  or  to  curse  the 
heritage  of  God.  You  are  called  to  this  post 
at  an  era  of  peculiar  interest  in  the  history  of 
redemption.  The  church  believes,  and  is 
beo^innino:  to  act  on  the  belief,  that  she  is  even 
now  ascending  those  heights  of  Zion  from 
whose  summit  she  is  to  overlook  the  broad 
fields  of  the  millennium.     Still  between  the 


52  INAUGURAL    CHARGE. 

point  at  which  she  now  stands,  and  that  on 
which  the  eye  of  her  faith  is  fixed,  she  sees 
that  a  most  eventful  period  is  to  intervene. 
Achievements  great  and  grand  and  glorious 
beyond  any  thing  that  her  past  history  has 
recorded,  any  thing  of  which  her  present  as- 
pects afford  a  reasonable  promise,  are  yet  to 
be  accomplished,  and  to  be  accomplished  soon. 
It  is  morally  certain  that  on  the  movements 
of  the  church  during  the  present  century,  one 
third  of  which  is  already  gone,  on  the  charac- 
ter that  shall  be  given  to  her  ministry  and  the 
tone  of  piety  that  shall  obtain  among  her  mem- 
bers, hangs  suspended  the  history  of  the  mil- 
lennium ;  and  on  no  human  instrumentality 
more  than  the  character  of  the  ministry. 

The  Board  of  Commissioners  of  the  Au- 
burn Theological  Seminary,  by  whose  ap- 
pointment and  in  whose  behalf  I  speak,  feel 
a  strong  desire  to  render  this  Institution  emi- 
nently subservient  to  the  church  of  Christ 
by  the  character  which  it  imparts  to  her  min- 
istry.   They  wish  to  make  it  all  that  the  most 


INAUGURAL    CHARGE.  53 

ardent  friends  of  truth,  of  benevolence  and  of 
revivals  can  require.  They  wish  to  give  it 
a  character  which  shall  in  all  respects  cor- 
respond to  the  high  and  broad  demand  of  the 
age.  They  have  invited  you.  Sir,  to  one  of 
its  chairs  of  instruction,  in  the  expectation 
that  your  influence  will  be  exerted  to  give  it 
the  character  which  its  friends  desire ;  and 
that  it  may  bear  a  full  and  honorable  part 
with  its  sister  institutions  in  giving  to  the 
church  such  a  ministry  as  her  present  emer- 
gencies, her  anticipations  and  her  prospects 
demand.  Some  of  the  leading  traits,  which 
are  demanded  in  the  ministry  of  the  present 
day,  I  will  briefly  enumerate. 

The  church  needs  a  jpious  ministry.  By 
this  I  mean  not  merely  that  the  minister  should 
be  a  converted  man — a  christian  in  the  com- 
mon acceptation  of  the  term ;  but  piety  should 
be  a  prominent,  an  all-pervading  feature  of 
his  character  ;  it  should  be  so  high  and  deep 
and  controlling  in  its  influence,  as  to  impart 
its  character  to  the  whole  man  ;  to  his  heart 


54  INAUGURAL    CHARGE. 

and  to  his  life,  to  his  habits  of  thought  and 
his  habits  of  action — his  studies  and  his  min- 
istrations— to  the  services  of  the  pulpit,  the 
lecture  room — the  sick  chamber,  the  person- 
al and  the  pastoral  visit,  to  all  his  business 
intercourse  also  with  the  world,  and  to  all  else 
in  which  his  character  will  be  developed  or 
his  influence  felt. 

The  church  needs  in  her  ministry  a  piety 
that  is  uniform  and  consistent.  Not  that 
which  now  burns  and  blazes  with  a  zeal  that 
would  consume,  and  with  an  ardor  that  will 
run  mad  in  all  the  wildness  of  frenzy  and 
fanaticism,  and  then  die  away  in  coldness  and 
apathy  and  spiritual  death.  We  need  in  all, 
but  in  the  ministry  especially,  a  piety  that 
glows  with  uniformly  increasing  flame,  and 
which  will  continue  to  shine  brighter  and 
brighter  till  the  perfect  day. 

The  church  needs  in  her  ministry  a  piety 
that  is  mild  and  gentle  and  kind^  while  it  is 
at  the  same  time  i?iflexible  and  decided, — piety 
of  such  a  cast  and  character  as  will  exhibit 


INAUGURAL    CHARGE.  55 

religion  in  its  more  lovely  and  winning  and 
attractive  aspects,  rather  than  in  those  coarse 
denunciatory  features  which  always  excite 
disgust  and  offence. 

The  emergencies  of  the  church  at  the  pre- 
sent day  require  a  learned  ministry.  She 
has  a  warfare  to  undertake  with  the  Man  of 
Sin,  in  which  all  the  sophistry  and  art  and 
cunning  which  Jesuitry  has  for  ages  been 
devising  are  to  be  encountered.  She  has  also 
to  engage  in  conflict  with  infidelity,  in  which 
learning  and  talent  and  wit  and  wealth  and 
power  and  combination  are  to  be  encountered. 
She  has  also  to  make  an  onset  upon  the  va- 
rious forms  of  false  religion.  These  all  deeply 
intrenched  in  the  depravity  of  the  human 
heart ;  consolidated  in  many  instances  by  the 
lapse  of  ages  ;  rendered  secure  by  the  author- 
ity of  ancient  and  venerated  names ;  fixed 
deep  in  the  heart  by  the  magic  power  of  an 
early  education,  and  fortified  by  a  perversion 
of  the  word  of  God  : — it  must  in  the  very  na- 
ture of  the  case,  require  skill  of  no  ordinary 


56  INAUGURAL    CHARGE. 

character  to  remove  the  obstacles  which  these 
oppose  to  the  final  triumphs  of  the  cross. 
Every  one  must  perceive  that  "  the  pulling 
down  of  these  strong  holds,"  and  of  these 
"  high  things  which  exalt  themselves."'  will 
require  piety  not  only,  and  talent  and  skill, 
but  learning — a  sound,  thorough,  liberal  edu- 
cation, in  the  minister  who  can  reasonably 
hope  to  be  successful  in  such  an  enterprize. 
The  emergencies  of  the  church  require  a 
catholic  ministry.  By  this  I  mean  a  ministry 
divested  as  far  as  possible  of  the  spirit  of  sec- 
tarianism and  bigotry.  How  much  has  the 
church  suffered  in  the  estimation  of  the  world ; 
how  have  her  energies  been  wasted,  her 
strength  reduced  to  weakness,  and  her  face 
covered  with  shame,  by  her  internal  conten- 
tions ;  and  all  or  nearly  all  relating  to  little 
things — the  mere  circumstantials  of  religion, 
which  have  no  bearing  whatever  on  the  great 
business  of  bringing  souls  to  Christ.  Whose 
"ear"  has  not  been  "pained,"  whose  "heart" 
has  not  been  "  sick,"  to  witness  the  petty  bick- 


INAUGURAL    CHARGE.  57 

erings  and  contentions  in  which  a  portion  of 
the  church  is  even  now  employed  !  Now  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  and  in  this  very  world 
in  which  and /or  which  the  Savior  laid  down 
his  life and  all  this  while  impenitent  sin- 
ners are  dying  without  the  gospel  at  the  rate  of 
sixty  thousand  in  a  day  !  The  church  needs 
for  her  present  and  future  operations,  a  min- 
istry whose  views  shall  extend  above  and  be- 
yond the  little  punctillios  about  which  small 
minds  are  willing  to  be  engrossed,  and  who 
will  bring  their  entire  influence  to  bear  solely 
and  wholly  upon  the  great  business  of  bring- 
ing the  world  to  Christ ;  and  we  desire  that 
it  may  be  constantly  impressed  on  the  young 
men  of  this  institution  that  they  are  in  a  course 
of  training  here,  not  for  the  arena  of  religious 
politics  or  of  religious  combatancy,  but  for  the 
work  of  converting  souls,  for  the  high  purpose 
of  becoming  co-workers  with  God  in  the  sal- 
vation of  the  world. 

The  emergencies  of  the  church  require  a 
pathetic,  warm-hearted,  affectionate  ministry ; 


58  INAUGURAL    CHARGE. 

men  who  have  a  heart  and  a  soul  and  a  sym- 
pathy which  can  enter  into  the  anxieties  and 
soUcitudes,  the  joys  and  extacies  of  a  fellow 
man  ;  men  whose  sensibilities  have  not  been 
chilled  and  paralized  and  frozen  to  death  by 
the  influence  of  their  preparatory  studies.  But 
as  this  topic  has  been  so  amply  and  so  ably 
discussed  by  the  brother  who  preceded  me, 
I  will  waive  what  I  had  intended  to  say  on 
this  particular.* 

The  emergencies  of  the  church  require  an 
active^  zealous^  laborious  ministry.  She  heis 
had  her  sinecures,  and  she  has  had  enough  of 
them.     She  needs  no  more. 

Non  tali  auxilio,  nee  defensoribus  istis, 
Tempus  eget. 

Her  present  emergencies  call  only  for  work- 
ing men — in  the  best  sense  of  the  phrase 
WORKING  MEN— men  who  are  willing  to 

*  The  remaining  part  of  this  head  was  omitted  in 
the  dehvery,  because  the  principal  thoughts  which  are 
deemed  important  are  expressed  in  the  sermon.  It  is 
lor  the  same  reason  suppressed  in  the  pubhcation. 


INAUGURAL    CHARGE.  59 

'*  endure  hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ," — wilUng  to  endure  privations  and 
toils,  "  perils  by  sea  and  by  land  and  among 
false  brethren,"  men  who  will  go  into  the  wil- 
derness or  cross  the  ocean,  who  will  go  to  any 
place  or  do  any  thing  which  the  service  of 
Christ  may  require.  If  men  are  needed  to  go 
and  lay  their  bones  with  Fisk  and  Newell  on 
a  foreign  shore,  or  with  Munson  and  Lyman 
to  fall,  butchered,  by  the  hand  of  the  savage 
cannibal,  or  to  waste  away  to  a  premature 
old  age  under  the  hardships  of  the  missionary 
field,  we  want  men  who  will  be  ready  for  the 
sacrifice, — men  who  will  account  no  labor  too 
great,  no  danger  too  appalling,  no  privations 
too  severe,  to  be  encountered  for  the  promo- 
tion of  the  cause  of  Christ.  Give  to  the  church 
the  right  men^  properly  trained,  and  in  suf- 
ficient numbers  ;  let  the  church  sustain  them 
by  her  prayers  and  efi^orts,  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
accompany  them  by  his  power  and  grace,  and 
we  may  expect  that  "Jerusalem  will  soon 
arise  and  shine,  her  light  being  come."    The 


60  INAUGURAL   CHARGK, 

jarhngs  and  jealousies^  which  now  distfact 
our  bleeding  Zion,  will  be  then  unknownj 
and  the  whole  church  will  thus  go  forward 
in  solid  column  and  with  unfaltering  step  to 
the  conquest  of  the  world. 

It  was,  Sir,  in  the  belief  and  expectation 
that  your  views  of  what  is  requisite  in  the 
gospel  ministry  at  the  present  day,  accord  es- 
sentially with  our  own,  that  we  have  been 
solicitous  to  obtain  your  services  for  the  chaii" 
of  instruction  to  which  you  have  now  been 
introduced.  To  what  extent  the  future  histo- 
ry of  this  institution  may  be  affected  by  your 
influence,  I  need  not  inquire.  It  is  proper 
however  that  1  should  apprize  you  that  the  ex- 
pectations of  the  church  in  relation  to  it,  are 
high.  It  is  an  institution  which  the  churches 
of  Western  New- York  love  and  prize.  They 
have  labored  long  and  cheerfully  to  bring  it 
to  its  present  state,  and  we  are  happy  to  con- 
gratulate the  church  to-day  in  seeing  the  last 
of  its  vacant  chairs  filled  in  a  manner  which 
justifies  the  high  expectations  which  we  en- 


INAUGtRAL   CHARGE.  61 

tertain.  Most  cordially^  Sir,  do  we  bid  yoil 
welcome  to  Western  New- York,  and  to  the 
labors  and  responsibilities  of  the  office  into 
which  you  are  now  inducted.  We  pledge  to 
you  our  cordial  support  and  co-operation,  so 
far  as  our  relations  to  the  Seminary  may  re- 
quire, and  we  expect  of  you  a  faithful  obser- 
vance of  the  Rules  and  Ordinances  of  the 
institution,  a  conformity  in  your  instructions 
to  the  Confession  of  Faith  which  you  have 
now  subscribed,  and  to  the  order  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  and  that  you  will  in  all 
things  seek  the  prosperity  of  this  Institution, 
and  endeavor  to  make  it,  in  all  respects,  what 
its  friends  so  ardently  desire  that  it  should  be, 
and  what  its  past  success  encourages  them  to 
believe  that  it  may  be,  a  rich  blessing  to  the 
church  of  Christ. 

And  now,  Sir,  we  commend  you  and  this 
Seminary,  with  all  its  precious  interests,  "  to 
God  and  to  the  word  of  his  grace,  which  is 
able  to  build  you  up  and  to  give  you  an  in- 
heritance among  all  them  that  are  sanctified,'^ 
6 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 


BY  SAMUEL  H.  COX,  D.  D. 
Of  Auburn. 


CoMxMISSIONERS  AND  THE  TRUSTEES  OF  THE  SEMI- 
NARY, THE  Professors  and  the  Students,  and 

OTHER  learned  AND  HIGHLY  RESPECTED  AUDITORS 
CONVENED  ON  THE  PRESENT  SOLEMN  OCCASION  ; 

In  acceding  to  the  duties  of  a  Professor  in 
this  sacred  School,  it  is  right  that  I  should 
give  utterance  to  my  sense  of  their  magnitude, 
in  contrast  with  the  limit  of  my  real  or  sup- 
posed qualifications  for  their  competent  dis- 
charge. The  chair  I  am  to  occupy  has  been 
long  vacant,  or  rather  was  never  absolutely 
filled ;  my  first  and  only  predecessor  in  the 
place* — to  whom  on  many  accounts  the  In- 

*  The  Reverend  Dirck  C.  Lansing,  D.  D.  formerly 
pastor  of  the  First  (and  then  the  only)  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Auburn,  Resigned,  March  3, 1826. 


64  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

stitution  will  not  cease  to  commemorate  its 
peculiar  obligations— having  accepted  it  only 
in  the  exigency  and  the  recency  of  its  inter- 
ests, and  discharged  its  duties  with  great  and 
necessary  interruption  resulting  from  a  large 
parochial  care  ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  public 
service  in  behalf  of  the  enterprize,  in  which 
he  was  much  employed,  during  the  days  of 
its  perilous  infancy,  as  its  advocate,  I  might 
say  its  founder  and  its  champion,  in  Western 
New- York.  Our  Seminary,  however,  has 
amply  justified  already  the  far-sighted  wisdom 
of  its  pious  projectors  and  original  friends ; 
who  now— some  of  them,  we  trust,  in  heaven- 
rejoice  in  its  prospects  and  its  promise  under 

ITS    GREAT    PATRON,    JeSUS    ChRIST  !       But 

why  the  vacancy  so  long  protracted,  the  in- 
terval of  more  than  nine  years  since  the  re- 
signation of  its  former  occupant  ?  Is  not  the 
place  important  ?  Can  a  Theological  Semi- 
nary be  completely  organized  without  it  ?  Is 
its  worth  intrinsically  little  in  comparison  with 
others,  or  do  the  Guardians  of  this  Seminary 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  65 

disparage  it  in  their  estimation?  None  of 
these.  The  reasons  of  the  obvious  defect  it 
were  useless  to  recount.  Whatever  the  chair 
has  been,  it  is  vacant  at  least  no  longer.  Its 
proper  importance  is  manifestly  great.  That 
its  present  occupant  shall  succeed  in  the  ser- 
vice, to  him  so  new  and  justly  so  formidable, 
is  a  problem  for  futurity  to  solve.  Who  is 
sufficient  for  these  things  7  If  some  convic- 
tion of  my  great  need  of  the  grace  of  God, 
and  subordinately,  my  brethren,  of  your 
prayers  and  the  prayers  of  all  the  churches, 
be  any  signal  of  encouragement  or  presage 
of  success,  I  may  well  conflict  with  every 
temptation  to  despondency  and  draw  comfort 
itself  from  the  consciousness  of  my  infirmities. 
There  is  an  equal  Helper  !  He  giveth  power 
to  the  faint  J  and  to  them  that  have  no  might 
he  increaseth  strength.  For  I  the  Lord  thy 
God  will  hold  thy  right  hand,  saying  unto 
thee,  Fear  not,  I  will  help  thee,  saith  the 
Lord  and  thy  Redeemer,  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel. 

6* 


66  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

The  same  reasons  that  show  the  importance 
of  our  Seminary  itself,  demonstrate  as  cer- 
tainly the  moral  greatness  of  the  occasion  that 
has  convened  us.  Its  relation  to  the  church  of 
God  and  her  sublunary  interests,  widening  into 
eternity  as  we  trace  them ;  and  at  the  same  time 
as  we  hope  in  Him,  its  gracious  indication  of 
beneficence  to  all  those  interests,  invest  it  with 
a  superhuman  grandeur  and  even  a  heavenly 
glory,  with  which  in  comparison  all  earthly 
magnificence  is  poor.  What  are  kingly 
thrones  and  diadems,  what  the  laurels  of  he- 
roic conquest  or  the  bays  of  intellectual 
chieftainship,  what  are  Avealth  and  pomp 
and  fame,  for  a  day  or  two  on  earth,  compared 
with Salvation?  What  is  the  battle- 
field— what  are  the  death-scenes  of  Waterloo, 
to  the  places  and  the  periods  in  which  Chris- 
tianity triumphs,  God  is  glorified,  and  men  are 
saved  ?  There  is,  say  you,  no  analogy ;  be- 
cause the  things  are  in  nature  incongruous 
and  so  unfit  to  be  compared.  True.  But  the 
contrast  is  therefore  the  more  palpable.    Noi 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  67 

js  the  illustration  wholly  tramontane  and  wild. 
For,  my  brethren,  may  I  remind  you,  the 
bloodiest  battle  on  the  records  of  modern  his- 
tory, in  which  the  Sabbath  of  God  was  dese- 
crated with  rampant  murder — the  air  polluted 
with  groans  and  execrations  of  dying  armies 
— and  the  earth  fatted  with  the  gore  of  agoni- 
zing myriads,  when  seventy  thousand  unholy 
allies,  and  ninety  thousand  miserable  con- 
scripts, met  in  mortal  conflict — where  Wel- 
lington was  a  victor  and  Napoleon  a  cap- 
tive, the  fray  of  wonder  and  of  horror  that 
fixed  so  decisively  the  destinies  of  Europe 
and  thundered  so  astoundingly  through  the 
civilized  world — that  battle  was  fought  on  the 
eighteenth  of  June^  1815  ;  just  twenty  years 
ago  this  day  !  The  coincidence  was  wholly 
undesigned — and  is  of  no  importance,  except 
as  it  may  lead  our  minds  ardently  to  antici- 
pate the  period  when  the  science  of  war  shall 
be  forgotten  or  abhorred ;  when  human  ha- 
tred, with  its  scientific  butcheries  and  its  mul- 
tiform oppressions,  shall  cease  under  heaven 


68  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

universally:  a  consummation  gilding  our 
prospects  as  certainly  as  the  truth  of  God  can 
speak  it,  and  to  be  expected — only  as  the 

RESULT  OF  THE  GoSPEL  WITH  ITS  GENU- 
INE MINISTRATIONS  PROPAGATED  AND  RE- 
ALIZED TO  EVERY  NATION  AND  PEOPLE  ON 
THE  GLOBE ! 

The  due  training  of  our  ministerial  candi- 
dates for  their  appropriate  work,  is  an  object 
desirable  above  all  human  computation.  De- 
voting myself  this  day,  most  solemnly,  to  one 
compartment  of  that  work  in  this  Seminary, 
it  may  be  well  that  my  sentiments  on  that  and 
kindred  topics  should  be  fully  and  distinctly 
avowed.  Accordingly,  the  theme  of  this  ad- 
dress is THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY  :  which 

I  propose  generally  to  treat  in  relation  to 
Its  IMPORTANCE,  and 

The  KIND  OF  MINISTRY  NEEDED  IN  THIS 
AGE  AND  NATION. 

I.  In  reference  to  the  importance  of  the 
CHRISTIAN  ministry  in  the  economy  of 
God  ;  its  importance  as  he  has  constituted  it ; 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  69 

as  he  uses  it ;  as  he  defines  it  in  his  word ;  as 
he  surrounds  it  with  the  sanctions  of  his 
throne;  as  he  communicates  salvation  through 
its  medium ;  as  he  guards  and  perpetuates  it 
in  his  providence ;  as  he  blesses  its  appropri- 
ate work  and  crowns  its  labors  with  his  grace ; 
the  importance  of  the  Christian  ministry,  one 
would  think^  must  be  self-evident,  imiversally 
imderstood  and  believed.  The  gift  of  the  Sa- 
vior, the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  the  gift  of  the  mi- 
nistry, these  three  in  their  distinctness,  how- 
ever mutually  allied,  and  just  in  the  order 
named,  may  be  classed  together  as  the  three 
cardinal  gifts  of  God  to  man.  They  are  all 
mutually  dependent  in  the  divine  economy, 
consociated  in  salvation,  each  illustrating  the 
glorious  importance  of  both  the  others. 

I.  The  gift  of  the  savior  to  our  world, 
has  the  deserved  and  the  unrivalled  pre-emi- 
nence. It  stands  unparalleled  amid  the  bene- 
factions of  God.  It  is  the  source,  the  harbin- 
ger, the  implication  of  all  his  other  and  sub- 
t)rdinate  munificence.    All  other  gifts  come 


70  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

with  it,  by  it,  and  for  its  sake.  It  is  the  basis 
and  the  centre  of  the  mediatorial  system  ;  a 
constitution  of  the  manifold  wisdom  not  less 
than  the  unsearchable  riches  of  God ;  attract- 
ing all  our  regards  scarce  more  from  the  host 
of  glories  into  which  its  elements  are  resolv- 
able— which  could  in  their  opulence  aggran- 
dize any  structure  of  God  in  the  eternal  and 
delighted  wonder  of  his  creatures,  than  from 
those  relative  and  absorbing  aspects  towards 
us,  which  all  our  interests  honor  and  all  our 
duties  own.  It  is  not  a  field  of  abstract  sdo- 
ries,  which  the  gospel  calls  us  to  participate 
and  explore ;  but  one  of  such  personal  inte- 
rest, and  such  appeal  to  all  that  is  human  and 
moral  and  immortal  in  us,  that  to  understand 
and  appreciate  it  as  it  is,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  dislike  and  condemn  and  decline  it,  is 
a  thing  impossible.  What  shall  we  then  say 
to  these  things  7  If  God  he  for  us,  who  can  be 
against  us  7  He  that  spared  not  his  oion  Son, 
but  freely  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how 
shall  he  not  with  him  also  freely  give  us  all 


IJVAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  71 

things  7  Having  gratuitously  enriched  us 
with  the  greater,  becomes  it  us  to  think  of 
HIM  so  meanly,  as  to  doubt  that  he  will  also 
append  the  less  ?  what,  but  an  absurdity  in 
terms,  were  this,  too  self-evident  and  glaring 
even  for  our  minds  to  entertain  for  a  moment  ? 
The  Solar  System  is  composed  not  of  one  orb, 
but  of  many,  yet  one  in  the  centre  gives  name 
to  the  whole  in  the  classifications  of  our 
science :  because  we  know  all  the  others  to 
be  surrounding  and  dependent,  inferior  and 
tributary,  owing  all  their  order  and  their  sea- 
sons, their  summer  and  their  day,  their  beau- 
ty and  their  life,  to  that  central  and  incompa- 
rable globe,  which  is  more  than  all  of  them 
singly  or  combined  ;  and  without  whose  per- 
petual radiations  and  influential  attractions, 
the  system  itself  would  run  riot  and  dissolve. 
Thanks  he  ignto  God  for  his  unspeakable 

2.  Next  in  order,  distinct  and  yet  so  allied 
as  to  seem  almost  identical,  is  the  gift  of 
THE  Holy  Spirit.   This  gift  however  is  se- 


72  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

condary  and  consequent.  The  death  of  Christ 
procured  it.     The  death  of  Christ,  or  rather 
his  mediatorial  designation,  included  the  pro- 
cession of  the  Spirit,  in  all  his  various,  rich, 
and  everlasting'  influences.     The  Christian 
dispensation,  or  Christianity  itself,  may  be  en- 
titled the  ministration  of  the  Spirit.     Says 
the  Savior,  If  I  go  not  away^  the  Comforter 
will  not  come  unto  you.     But  if  I  depart^  I 
will  send  him,  unto  you.      Wait  for  the  pro- 
mise of  the  Father,  tvhich  ye  have  heard  of 
me,  For — ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  not  many  days  hence.     For  Jesus  by 
one  offering,  hath  perfected  forever  them  that 
are  sanctified,  whereof  the  Holy  Ghost  also 
is  a  witness  to  us.  How  great  the  importance 
of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit !  without  which,  not 
a  soul  of  the  species  would  ever  be  saved,  even 
through   the  redemption  thab  there  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  :  with  which,  all  the  moral  ex- 
cellence in  man,  in  this  world  and  that  which 
is  to  come,  is  forever  identified,  as  the  fruit  of 
the  Spirit :  without  which,  all  the  means  and 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  73 

all  the  ministers  of  grace,  human  and  angelic, 
ordinary  and  extraordinary,  would  be  alike 
effete  and  powerless  for  the  purpose  of  sal- 
vation. 

3.  Nor  may  we  hesitate  to  what  place  of  com- 
parative dio^nity  and  grandeur,  or  to  what  lar- 
gess of  the  divine  benignity,  we  are  to  assign 
THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  It  takcs  the  third 
honor,  unquestionably.  We  say,  next  to  the 
gift  of  the  Savior,  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
the  gift  of  the  Christian  ministry  is  chiefly 
and  alone  pre-eminent.  Without  it,  where 
were  the  church  of  God,  visible  or  invisible  ? 
without  it,  who  is  ordinarily  or  ever  convert- 
ed ?  without  it,  what  are  the  prospects  of  the 
world,  what  commonly  the  converting  agen- 
cy of  the  Spirit,  or  how  is  the  reward  of  the 
costly  death  of  the  Savior  to  be  realized?  The 
economical  importance  of  the  ministry  is 
about  as  great  and  indispensable  to  salvation, 
as  is  the  office-work  of  the  Father^  and  of  the 
Son^  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Let  us  read  its 
importance  not  in  the  meanness  or  the  fragi- 
7 


74  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS'. 

lity  of  earthen  vessels  that  contain  this  tfecC" 
sure  of  the  gospel,  but  in  the  use  he  makes 
of  them,  and  the  dignity  to  which  he  pro- 
motes them,  of  whom  is  the  excellency  of 
the  power.  Let  us  approve  and  adopt  the  doc- 
trine of  the  great  Author  of  the  ministry,  in 
regard  to  the  question  of  its  value  and  its  use. 
His  appointed  ways  are  plainly  his  revealed 
ways  also  ;  and  they  are  manifested  that  we 
may  conform  to  them,  not  expecting  vainly 
that  they  will  ever  conform  to  us.  The  facts, 
and  mainly  the  reasons  of  them,  are  given  in 
his  word;  and  shall  our  wisdom  scorn  ta 
learn  the  lessons  that  God  deigns  to  teach, 
or  our  presumption  dispense  with  what  he 
has  required,  or  our  officiousness  modify 
what  he  has  completed,  or  our  pride  venture 
to  degrade  what  his  authority  hath  highly 
exalted  7  Are  we  ever  warranted  from  him 
to  expect  the  result  without  the  process,  the 
end  without  the  means,  the  blessing  without 
the  order  ;  nay,  these  all,  in  manifest  subver- 
sion of  the  certain  ways  of  HIM,  who  hath 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  75 

constituted  the  system,  who  challenges  it  as 
his  own,  and  who  presides  vividly  in  all  its 
administration,  as  Jesus  Christy  the  same  y es- 
ter day  ^  and  to-day^  and  for  ever  7  Is  that  sys- 
tem unworthy  of  the  architect  who  made  it, 
or  are  we  the  sages  that  could  counsel  him  to 
improve  it?  Who  are  they  that  dare  to  defame 
or  disparage  the  ministry  of  reconciliation ; 
the  chosen  medium  by  which  God  conciliates 
men  ;  the  mighty  moral  enginery  that  accom- 
plishes his  brightest  wonders  ;  the  authentic 
diplomacy  of  the  King  of  Kings,  icorking  sal- 
vation in  the  7nidst  of  the  earth.  Ascribe  ye 
greatness  to  our  God.  He  is  the  Rock^  and 
his  work  is  perfect:  for  all  his  ways  are 
judgment ;  a  God  of  truth  and  without  ini- 
quity^ just  and  right  is  he. 

In  our  estimate  of  the  Christian  ministry, 
my  brethren,  the  degree  of  its  value  is  to  be 
wisely  conformed  to  an  inspired  criterion. 
On  that  degree  depends  much  or  all  of  our 
piety  and  our  usefulness.  Whatever  tends  in 
any  way  to  impair  our  estimate  of  that  great 


76  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

blessing",  tends  just  as  certainly  to  subvert  the 
empire  of  religion  in  our  hearts.  The  word 
of  God  is  the  criterion  by  which  our  estimate 
is  to  be  governed ;  our  estimate  itself,  while 
it  cannot  be  too  intelligent  or  too  discriminat- 
ing, must  still  be  an  exercise  of  faith.  It  is  only 
as  we  believe  what  God  says  respecting  it, 
that  our  views  can  be  either  sufficiently  cor- 
rect or  sufficiently  high.  As  for  those  esti- 
mates that  are  neither  high  nor  correct,  that 
submit  to  no  rule  but  that  of  infidelity  and 
know  no  inspiration  but  that  of  malignity, 
that  scorn  the  ministry  not  so  much  as  they 
scorn  God  himself  that  founded  it,  or  those 
that  are  perverse  or  fond  or  fanatical,  we  care 
little  for  them ;  and  their  authors  are  wor- 
thier of  our  pity  than  our  indignation.  We  va- 
lue primarily  no  man's  opinions,  not  even  our 
own ;  having  renounced  all  these,  with  the 
hidden  things  of  dishonesty ^  and  the  sense- 
less vanities  of  our  alienation,  for  the  true  say- 
ings  of  God.  And  all  things  are  of  God,  who 
hath  reconciled  us  to  himself  by  Jesus  Christy 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  77 

and  hath  given  to  us  the  ministry  of  recon- 
ciliation ;  to  loit,  that  God  was  in  Christ  re- 
conciling  the  world  unto  hi?nself,  not  imput- 
ing their  trespasses  unto  them;  and  hath 
committed  unto  us  the  loord  of  reconciliation. 
Now  then  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as 
though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us.  Let  a 
man  so  accoimt  of  us,  as  of  the  ministers  of 
Christ,  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God, 
Neither  2)r  ay  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them, 
also  who  shall  believe  on  me  through  their 
word  !  But  when  he  saw  the  multitudes,  he 
was  m^oved  loith  compassion  on  them.,  because 
they  fainted,  and  were  scattered  abroad,  as 
sheep  having  no  shepherd.  Then  said  he 
unto  his  disciples,  the  harvest  truly  is  plente- 
ous, but  the  laborers  are  few;  pray  ye  there- 
fore the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  he  will  send 
forth  laborers  into  his  harvest.  What  then 
is  the  ministry,  or  how  high  to  be  correct 
must  our  estimate  be  ?  The  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  they  are  the  messengers  [the  angels] 

of  the  churches  and  the  glory  of  Christ. 

7* 


78  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

The  Christian  ministry  is  an  expedient  of 
divine  wisdom,  adapted  to  the  noblest  ends, 
admirably  fitted  to  produce  them,  and  used 
by  the  Eternal  Spirit  effectually  to  this  result. 

Should  it  be  objected,  against  the  high  rank 
here  assigned  to  the  ministry,  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  have  the  just  precedence,  and 
should  be  honored  with  the  third  place,  and 
the  ministry  only  with  the  fourth ;  we  reply, 
that  the  objection  had  been  precluded,  or  is 
instantly  solved,  by  generalizing  properly  in 
regard  to  the  import  or  comprehensiveness  of 
the  term.  It  may  appear  hereafter  that  the 
ministry  is  a  designation  so  general  and  so 
comprehensive,  as  justly  to  include  the  mi- 
nisters of  God  in  all  ages,  and  of  all  ranks 
and  descriptions ;  and  to  include  by  conse- 
quence all  the  inspired  penmen,  by  whom  the 
Holy  Scriptures  were  written,  those  who  offi- 
ciated as  the  ministry  of  heaven  for  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred  years  before  the  Penta- 
teuch was  in  existence.  For  if  in  one  im- 
portant aspect,  the  Scriptures  were  written  for 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  79 

the  ministry  of  this  dispensation,  as  their  glo- 
rious text-book  in  preaching,  and  their  ple- 
nary letter  of  instructions,  from  the  court  they 
represent  and  the  God  they  serve,  in  an  as- 
pect equally  important  it  is  also  true  that  the 
Scriptures  are  a  production  and  a  fruit  of  the 
ministry  of  other  ages ;  that  to  prepare  and  pre- 
serve them,  was  a  distinct  department  of  the 
duties  of  a  pre-existing  ministry;  and  that  in 
the  order  of  time,  and  the  order  of  dependence 
too,  the  ministry,  considered  generally,  has  the 
third  place  ;  it  has  the  relation  of  author  and 
producer  to  that  glorious  volume  of  sixty-six 
distinct  volumes ;  which  is  now  the  highest 
standard  of  our  faith,  the  furniture  of  our 
preachers,  and  the  authentic  oracle  of  our 
God.  This  is  plainly  the  representation  of 
that  volume  itself.  The  ministry,  and  virtu- 
ally the  Christian  ministry  too,  has  existed  in 
all  ages,  as  the  channel  of  correspondence 
between  the  footstool  and  the  throne.  The 
diversity  of  names,  forms,  and  even  of  duties 
and  relations,  does  nothing  mar  the  unity  of 


80  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

the  great  ministerial  function,  or  the  integri- 
ty of  the  cause  of  God  in  which  alone  it  is 
employed  and  maintained.  Human  agents 
have  been  used  from  the  beginning ;  all  equal- 
ly necessary  in  their  place,  all  serving  one 
Almighty  Master,  all  devoted  to  one  glorious 
interest,  all  procured  alike  by  the  blood  of 
Christ,  all  dispensed  to  his  church  from  his 
mediatorial  throne.  In  the  rich  assemblage 
of  divine  testimonies  to  this  statement,  there 
is  one  to  which  I  would  particularly  direct 
your  attention,  showing  the  grand  relation  of 
the  Christian  ministry  to  all  the  brighter  tro- 
phies of  redemption's  Prince  ;  since  the  sub- 
jects of  his  gracious  dominion  are  multiplied, 
recruited,  and  accomplished  for  glory,  main- 
ly by  means  of  that  ministry ;  and  since  that 
enginery  is  itself  important,  which  was  di- 
vinely invented,  and  is  still  prosperously  em- 
ployed, to  subserve  the  attainment  of  ends  so 
worthy  and  so  grand.  Could  the  contempla- 
tion of  that  passage,  though  necessarily  too 
transient  on  the  present  occasion,  assist,  my 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  81 

brethren,  our  estimate  of  the  Christian  minis- 
try, as  divinely  originated,  morally  magnifi- 
cent, and  superlatively  important,  it  will  be 
time  well  spent,  precious  as  it  is,  to  consider 
it.  I  allude  to  Ephesians  iv.  8 — 13.  I  shall 
say  in  its  treatment,  less  than  I  ought  at  ano- 
ther time.  Wherefore  he  saith,  When  he  as- 
cended up  on  high,  he  led  captiviti/  captive, 
arid  gave  gifts  unto  men.  This  the  Apostle 
quotes  from  the  sixty-eighth  psalm,  where  the 
ascension  of  Messiah  is  distinctly  predicted, 
celebrated  in  public  worship  more  than  one 
thousand  years  previous  to  his  advent,  and 
symbohzed  in  triumph  to  the  eyes  and  ears  of 
all  Israel,  on  the  grand  occasion  of  removing 
the  ark  to  its  prepared  pavillion  on  Mount 
Zion.  But  Jesus  is  the  true  Ark  of  the  co- 
venant, on  which  the  glory  forever  resteth  ; 
the  great  architypical  mercy-seat  or  propitia- 
tory, that  sustains  the  Shechinah  of  eternity, 
the  abiding  sun-light  of  the  salvation  of  Jeho- 
vah. Consequently  the  apostle  applies  the 
victor  pean  immediately  to  Christ,  as  having 


82  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

spoiled  principalities  and  powers  in  his  cross, 
and  then  ascended  a  conqueror ;  making  a 
show  of  them  openly^  triumphing  over  them 
in  it.  Hear  the  inspired  commentary  of  Paul 
on  the  quotation.  Now^  that  he  ascended^  what 
is  it,  what  does  it  obviously  import,  but  that 
he  also  descended,  first,  into  the  lower  parts 
of  the  earth  ?  He  adds.  He  that  did  both  ac- 
tions in  their  order,  is  the  same  personage, 
the  same  King  of  glory ;  He  that  descended, 
is  the  same  also  that  ascended  up  far  above 
all  heavens,  that  he  might  fill  all  things. 
And  to  this  end,  what  did  he  there  ?  And  he 
gave  some,  apostles;  and  some,  prophets ; 
and  some,  evangelists  ;  and  some,  pastors  and 
teachers  ;  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of 
the  body  of  Christ :  till  we  all  come  in  [into] 
the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stattire  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ. 
Thus  the  ministry  may  be  said  to  be  con- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS-  8»1 

stitiited  of  FOUR  distinguishable  orders.  Apos- 
tles, Prophets,  Evangelists,  Pastors  ; 
all  serving  the  same  glorious  Master,  with  the 
same  holy  motives ;  ministering  in  different 
ways  and  in  successive  ages,  the  same  system 
of  truth  ;  commissioned  by  the  same  autho- 
rity and  speaking  in   one  incommunicable 
name ;  achieving  the  same  excellent  ends  and 
together  edifying  the  church  of  our  Redeemer. 
Apostles  and  Prophets,  are  the  former 
two ;  in  dignity  superior  and  senior  in  age. 
They  live  with  us  at  present  in  their  writings 
alone  ;  less  embalmed  than  immortal,  and  vi- 
vid by  the  presence  of  their  God^  who  quick- 
eneth  all  things.     The  idea  of  who  are  their 
successors,  is  one  that  we  utterly  repudiate 
and  condemn ;  asking  rather,  who  are  the 
usurpers  that  pretend  to  their  authority,  or 
the  rivals  that  have  eclipsed  them.  They  have 
no  successors,  whatever  prelacy  may  argue 
or  papacy  ordain.  They  endure,  and  are  still 
ministering  to  us,  in  the  scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments.     The  pretence  of 


84  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS* 

succeeding  them,  of  wielding  their  original 
authority  and  making  good  their  places  on  the 
earth,  is  a  vanity  and  a  crime,  a  presumption 
and  an  abomination,  among  the  most  funda- 
mental of  the  impieties  of  papal  or  protestant 
Antichrist.  Every  true  church  of  the  present 
dispensation  is  dependent  on  their  honored 
ministrations,  for  its  creed,  its  edification,  and 
its  hope  towards  God ;  nay,  for  all  its  guidance, 
profession,  comfort,  strength,  usefulness,  vic- 
tory, salvation :  and  are  built  upon  thefoim- 
dation  of  the  apostles  and  the  prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  hhnself  being  the  chief  corner-stone  ; 
in  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  toge- 
ther groweth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord. 
The  other  two  are  denominated,  Evange- 
lists, Pastors  and  Teachers  ;  are  appro- 
priately the  ministry  of  the  present  dispensa- 
tion. We  say  two ;  for  though  three  titles 
are  mentioned,  the  latter  two  of  them  refer 
manifestly  to  the  same  order.  It  were  better 
rendered  Pastors,  even  Teachers  ;  the 
latter  term  being  explanatory  of  the  former ; 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  85 

jind  the  former  being  figurative,  as  the  word 
shepherd  with  us,  when  applied  to  a  spiritual 
instructer.  Thus,  droping  the  figure,  the  term 
means  teachers,  when  used  in  these  rela- 
tions of  spiritual  service  in  the  church  of 
God ;  and  distinsfuishes  those  whose  office  it 
is,  with  shepherd  care,  to  preside  over  the  con- 
gregational household,  and  feed  them  statedly 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  loith  food  con^ 
venient  for  them;  training  them  in  a  way  of 
oversight  indeed  ;  but  mainly  of  instruction 
in  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ,  pure  and  exu- 
berant ;  imparting  in  substance  the  know- 
ledge of  all  the  truth  of  scripture,  in  portions 
and  forms  and  distributions  wisely  adapted  to 
their  uniform  wants  but  varying  circum- 
stances and  conditions.  This  is  mainly  the 
pastoral  care  ;  the  business  and  the  bishoprick 
of  a  good  771} Ulster  of  Jesus  Christ :  a  desig- 
nation and  a  service  of  distinguished  honor, 
and  equal  responsibility ;  of  difficulty,  toil, 
and  incessant  absorption  ;  but  of  dignity,  use- 
fulness, and  delight,  when  well  exemplified, 


86  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS^ 

above  any  other  calling  in  the  world  !  It  is  a 
calUng  in  which  the  service,  when  rightly  and 
acceptably  performed  to  our  divine  Master^ 
gives  a  predominating  influence  of  joy  and 
hope  in  God,  rendering  the  business  sweet 
Emd  the  labor  inconsiderable.  It  is  a  calling 
to  which  no  man  should  aspire  without  count- 
ing the  cost  of  its  duties  and  its  trials  ;  and  in 
which  no  aspirant  will  succeed,  whose  soul 
is  not  smitten  with  its  excellence  and  ena- 
mored of  its  glory.  Totus  in  illis  must  be 
his  motto,  who  finds  labor  ipse  vohiptas  to 
be  his  experience.     As  one  has  it, 

No  post  on  earth  aflbrds  a  place 
Of  equal  honor or  disgrace* 

And  we  may  well  subjoin j 

No  work  so  profitably  glorious 
Employs  the  human  powers  victorious  i 
Or,  sordidly  distrusting  God, 
Causes  their  folly  to  explode. 

Evangelists    are  preachers    at    large  ^ 
whose  business  it  is  appropriately  to  visit  des- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  87 

titute  and  heathen  places,  introducing  Chris- 
tianity where  it  has  not  been  and  promulgat- 
ing the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  to  its  inha- 
bitants ;  diffusing  and  propagating  and  esta- 
blishing it  in  districts  of  desolation,  before  un- 
known alike  to  its  conquests  and  its  consola- 
tions ;  planting  churches  and  extending  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  over 
regions  where  Satan^s  seat  is  and  where  have 
been  only  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  that 
are  full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty.  The 
title,  by  custom  and  consent,  is  often  awarded 
in  a  way  of  eminence  to  the  four  historical 
writers  of  our  Savior's  life ;  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  John  ;  two  of  whom,  the  first  and  the 
last,  were  Apostles,  and  the  other  two  Evan- 
gelists proper ;  as  was  also  Philip,  who  was 
one  of  the  seven  and  expressly  called  the 
Evangelist :  and  also  Timothy,  Silas,  Titus, 
Apollos,  Epaphras,  Epaphroditus,  Tychicus, 
Trophimus,  and  a  great  multitude  of  others. 
Primitively,  Evangelists  were  as  much  more 
honored  and  occupied  appropriately  than  at 


88  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

present,  as  the  piety  of  the  age  was  purer  and 
more  abounding,  and  as  it  delighted  in  the  pro- 
pagation of  the  gospel.  In  the  passage,  it  may 
be  observed,  they  are  first  named  ;  evangelists 
and  pastors.  They  are  placed  next  in  order 
to  the  apostles,  though  much  allied  in  dignity 
to  Pastors.  Our  missionaries,  as  they  are  now 
familiarly  called,  are  Evangelists,  nearly  in 
the  primitive  sense  of  the  word :  an  order  that, 
as  we  approximate  the  final  victories  of  the 
cross  in  this  world,  will  certainly  increase,  in 
number  and  consideration  not  only,  but  also 
in  skill,  in  power  and  efliciency.  We  need 
more  of  the  missionary  spirit  in  our  church, 
and  perhaps  especially  in  our  Theological 
Seminaries.  It  is  the  spirit  of  Christianity  it- 
self Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  7 
ought  to  be  the  index  to  the  temper  of  all  our 
ministerial  expectants.  This,  I  say,  is  the 
temper  that  every  one  of  them  ought  to  che- 
rish and  to  have.  Also  I  heard  the  voice  of 
the  Lord,  saying,  Whom  shall  I  send,  arid 
who  will  go  for  us  ?  Then  said  I,  Here  am  I; 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  89 

send  me.  A  missionary  temper  is  necessary 
to  ev^ery  minister  of  Jesus  Christ.  Without  it, 
he  is  surely  no  Evangelist ;  and  he  is  just  as 
certainly  unfit  to  be  a  Pastor.  All  ought  to 
breathe  the  same  spirit  at  home  or  abroad. 
Without  it,  they  are  not  more  unfit  to  go  than 
to  stay.  It  is  less  the  legitimate  fruit  of  divine 
philanthropy,  than  its  very  essence,  its  living 
flame.  The  nature  too  of  our  enlistment  as 
good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ,  requires  of  us 
an  uncompromising  and  magnanimous  sub- 
serviency to  his  requisitions  whatever  they 
are.  Glorying  in  our  Master  as  the  King  of 
glory,  we  shall  then  advance  his  cause  as  best 
we  may,  and  enjoy  his  presence  in  the  service 
whether  foreign  or  domestic.  What !  shall 
the  sons  of  mammon  visit  the  antipodes,  and 
circumnavigate  the  globe  for  lucre,  and  we 
feel  less  the  powers  of  truth  and  grace?  Shall 
the  wretched  Jesuit,  the  cunning  minion  of 
the  Propaganda,  bind  himself,  with  military 
absoluteness,  to  obey  his  superior  to  the  ends 

of  the  earth,  at  any  time  and  in  any  way ;  and 

8* 


90  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

shall  light,  and  love,  and  life  eternal,  be  be- 
hind him,  in  our  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Master  and  our  Lord  ? 

These  four  orders,  Apostles,  Prophets, 
Evangelists,  Pastors,  constitute,  the  latter 
two  especially,  the  proper  ministry  of  the  dis- 
pensation :  the  latter  two,  as  personally  living, 
and  prolonged  in  their  immediate  service,  by 
perpetual  succession  to  the  end  of  time ;  the 
former  two,  being  dead,  are  not  superseded  in 
their  rightful  authority  at  all,  or  succeeded 
properly  by  any  ;  they  yet  live,  and  speak  in 
their  writings  which  furnish  the  substance  of 
all  authentic  ministrations  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  And  this,  in  the  fixed  and  regular 
economy  of  God.  Who  then  can  doubt,  or 
dare  despise,  the  constituted  dignity  and  im- 
portance of  the  Christian  ministry  ?  The  pas- 
sage we  are  considering  shows  it  in  high  re- 
hef ;  in  the  very  light  of  the  throne  and  in  all 
the  immensity  of  its  august  relations ;  ac- 
complishing indispensably  the  church  as  by 
the  washing  of  water  by  the  word,  and  fitting 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  91 

a  chosen  gerieration  for  the  heavenly  inheri- 
tance. The  supreme  exaltation  of  the  Savior 
in  his  official  character  on  the  throne  of  things, 
head  over  all  to  the  churchy  is  declared  to  be 
to  this  end,  that  he  might  fill  all  things.  It 
were  better  rendered,  that  he  anight  fulfil  all 
things ;  that  is,  that  his  administration  might 
accomplish  all  those  ends  and  fully  execute  all 
those  purposes,  of  salvation  to  the  church  and 
judgment  to  the  world  and  consummation  to 
the  sublunary  system,  for  which  he  assumed 
eternally  his  wondrous  office  and  has  exer- 
cised its  supreme  and  awful  functions  from 
the  beginning.  With  the  success  of  his  mo- 
narchy are  identified  all  the  interests  of  the 
church,  all  the  destinies  of  the  race,  all  the 
hopes  of  Christians.  The  world  and  its  inha- 
bitants, the  wicked  and  the  good,  time  and 
death,  the  resurrection  and  the  judgment, 
heaven  and  hell,  are  in  his  hand.  The  sys- 
tem appertains  to  him  and  he  will  fulfil  all 
things.  He  is  its  owner,  its  ruler,  its  disposer. 
Father — glorify  thy  ^on^  that  thy  Son  also 


92  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

may  glorify  thee  ;  as  thou  hast  given  him 
jiower  over  all  fleshy  that  he  should  give  eter- 
nal life  to  as  many  as  thou  hast  given  him. 
I  am  he  that  liveth,  and  tvas  dead  ;  and  he- 
hold^  I  am  alive  for  evermore  ;  Ame7i ;  and 
have  the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death.  For  he 
must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  un- 
der his  feet. 

To  the  prosperity  of  his  purposes  of  grace, 
the  Christian  ministry  is  indispensable.  It  is 
so  by  his  own  sovereign  wisdom  and  his  own 
unchanging  constitution.  In  proportion  as 
our  sentiments  are  evangehcal  and  our  piety 
enhghtenedj  just  as  our  rehgion  is  of  the  right 
kind  and  as  it  is  abounding,  shall  our  esti- 
mate on  an  ascending  scale  approach  that  of 
God,  touching  the  high  importance  of  the  mi- 
nistry in  the  divine  system.  "  A  Christian  is 
the  highest  style  of  man :"  yes,  and  a  Chris- 
tian minister  is  a  plenipotentiary  of  the  throne, 
holding  on  his  footstool  the  highest  office  in 
the  sublunary  gift  of  God.  It  is  an  office  that 
comes  next  to  the  glory  of  Jehovah  ;  tends 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  93 

natively  and  mightily  to  bless  mankind  ;  and 
embodies  in  its  amazing  progress  the  highest 
interests  of  the  world.  Highly  to  estimate  it, 
is  only  to  think,  I  might  rather  say,  to  feel 
correctly ;  since  it  is  necessary  to  piety,  au- 
spicious to  the  interests  of  society,  indicative 
of  sound  intelligence.  Such  an  estimate  is  of 
infinite  importance  to  the  ministry  itself;  and 
to  its  absence  may  probably  be  traced  much 
of  that  failure  in  service,  which  has  disap- 
pointed the  church  and  dishonored  the  incum- 
bents of  her  highest  places  ;  in  instances  too 
frequent,  too  recent,  too  memorable,  to  be 
lightly  esteemed  or  soon  forgotten.  See  how 
a  pure  and  lofty  sense  of  the  excellency  of  the 
ministerial  office,  entered  into  the  very  piety 
of  Paul,  subliming  his  character,  sustaining 
his  devotions,  and  rendering  him  unaffectedly 
superior  to  the  hostile  influence  of  the  world  ! 
It  was  the  practical  power  of  his  gratitude, 
showing  its  genuineness,  while  its  effusions 
sprang  from  the  sources  of  his  humility.  And 
I  thank  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  who  hath  ena- 


94  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

hied  me,  for  that  he  counted  me  faithful,  put- 
ting  me  into  the  ministry.  Unto  me,  icho  am 
less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this  grace 
given,  that  I  should  preach  among  the  na- 
tions the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  Ac- 
cording to  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed 
God,  which  was  committed  to  my  trust.  Where- 
unto  I  am  ordained  a  preacher  and  an  apostle, 
I  speak  the  truth  in  Christ  and  lie  not,  a 
teacher  of  the  nations  in  faith  and  verity. 

It  is  this  high  and  holy  estimate  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  Christian  ministry,  that  wisely 
influences  the  Church  of  God  to  take  the  pro- 
per measures,  practical,  prayerful,  often  pain- 
ful too,  to  perpetuate  the  blessing  where  it  is 
enjoyed  and  to  send  it  speedily  to  all  other 
places.  It  is  for  this  they  have  carefully 
founded,  and  at  great  expense  endowed  and 
sustained,  seminaries  of  professional  nurture, 
colleges  of  sacred  science,  schools  of  the  pro- 
phets, where  their  accredited  candidates  may 
become  qualified,  and  well  prepared,  for  the 
service  to  which  they  piously  and  honorably 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  95 

aspire.  That  God  dignifies  human  agency 
by  using  the  efforts  of  his  people,  and  by  am- 
ply crowning  them  with  his  blessing,  when 
plied  according  to  his  will,  is  a  proposition 
which  no  sensible  Christian  can  doubt.  It  is 
a  certain,  a  most  instructive,  a  richly  cheer- 
ing truth.  In  HIM  are  all  our  springs.  We 
have  no  expectation  of  prospering,  and  no 
wish  to  prosper,  but  as  he  sends  prosperity* 
God  give  us  grace  rightly  to  acknowledge 
HIM  in  all  our  ways,  so  that  his  direction  may 
be  graciously  afforded  in  all  we  attempt  and 
in  all  we  do !  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house) 
iliey  labor  in  vain  that  build  it.  For  promo- 
tion Cometh  neither  from  the  east^  nor  from 
the  went,  nor  from  the  south.  But  God  is  the 
Judge :  he  putteth  down  one  and  setteth  up 
another. 

The  importance  of  Theological  Seminaries, 
especially  in  our  infant  nation  and  throughout 
our  far  extensive  territories,  fast  populating 
and  prospectively  powerful  as  they  are,  and 
in  this  busy  and  enterprising  and  destiny- 


D6  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

forming  age  of  our  country  and  our  world ; 
the  importance  of  these  seminaries  is  just  as 
certain  as  the  preceding  principles  are  true. 
We  ought  to  have  them,  to  sustain  them, 
and  to  plant  them  at  proper  intervals  every 
where.  They  ought  to  be  patronized,  cherish- 
ed, estimated,  by  the  church  universal.    Mi- 
nisters are  men,  and  men  were  boys;  and 
without  appropriate  education  no  man  is  fit 
for  the  station  or  the  function  of  a  Christian 
minister.   It  is  not  grace  or  miracle  that  does 
it ;  or  any  other  influence,  without  competent 
education,  such  as  it  is  the  design  of  our  Se- 
minaries to  aflbrd.   When  God  planted  a  na- 
tion under  his  own  auspices,  where  the  chief 
magistrate  was  his  recognised  viceroy,  and 
the  whole  polity  a  theocracy  confessed,  and 
every  inhabitant  his  visible  worshipper,  his 
religion  was  organized,  endowed,  and  sus- 
tained, in  the  public  constitution  of  the  realm, 
commensurate  with  the  wants  of  the  people 
more  perfectly  than  in  any  other  example 
known  to  history.    One-twelfth  of  the  inha- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  97 

bltants  were  devoted  to  the  service  of  reli- 
gion in  regular  office  ;  forty-eight  cities  of  the 
priests,  or  four  to  each  tribe  proportioned, 
were  distributed  through  the  length  and 
the  breadth  of  the  land ;  forty-eight  theolo- 
gical se7?iinaries,  for  the  nurture  and  quali- 
fication of  those  who  were  to  ofiiciate  in  holy 
things  5  and  all  this,  besides  the  public  solem- 
nities of  the  metropolis,  and  as  tributary  to 
them ;  to  say  nothing  of  details  and  duties 
and  provisions  adequate  to  such  a  divine 
establishment.  And  were  their  wants  greater 
than  ours  ?  Are  not  men  born  ignorant  and 
alienated  now,  as  they  were  then  ?  Are  mi- 
racles to  be  expected  such  as  never  Avere,  to 
work  our  moral  regeneration  ?  Or  are  we  to 
use  no  means  for  the  evangelical  interests  of 
the  nation  and  the  world  ?  Are  the  ends  in- 
considerable, or  the  objects  preposterous,  at 
which  we  aim?  Or  is  it  best  to  do  nothing, 
but  waste  time,  squander  power,  sink  intellect, 
violate  duty,  forget  God,  defy  eternity,  and 

sink  into  the  grave  unblest  by  the  grace  of 
9 


98  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  Time  forbids  enlarge- 
ment here.    We  are  next  to  consider 

II.  The  character  of  such  a  ministry  as 

THE  CHURCH  REQUIRES,  IN  THIS  COUNTRY 
AND  AT  THIS  EVENTFUL  PERIOD  OF  THE 
WORLD. 

On  this  occasion  I  would  state  at  least,  to 
this  respected  auditory,  some  of  my  own  views 
on  the  subject;  descriptive  of  the  training 
which  will  be  attempted  in  this  seminary,  I 
trust,  by  all  its  Professors  in  happy  and  hearty 
union  ;  certainly  by  him,  who  this  day  ac- 
cedes, with  justly  trembling  diffidence  to  offi- 
cial service  within  its  sacred  precincts.  My 
colleagues  are  my  seniors  in  life,  as  well  as  in 
office  and  experience.  I  have  known,  esteem- 
ed, and  loved  them  all  for  nearly  one  fourth 
of  a  century ;  and  this  consideration,  as  it 
weighed  much  with  me  in  accepting  the  call, 
is  at  present  connected  with  my  most  cheer- 
ing prospects  and  expectations.  If  we  are  mu- 
tually to  forbear  and  consider  one  another, 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  99 

exemplifying  in  this  the  piety  we  preach, 
what  is  it  but  to  say  that  we  are  men,  imper- 
fect, and  in  need  reciprocally  of  a  kind  car- 
riage and  a  magnanimous  construction  in  all 
our  intercourse  ?  As  servants  of  God,  we  must 
severally  act  conscientiously,  and  with  that 
principled  independence  which  every  faithful 
minister  exemplifies  in  the  pulpit.  The  feel- 
ings and  the  fame  of  each  are  to  be  dear  to 
each  ;  but  not  so  precious  as  the  light  of  his 
countenance  whom  we  in  common  serve.  I 
anticipate  with  gratitude  to  God  the  unity  of 
the  Spirit  kept  in  the  bond  of  peace^  by  the 
Faculty  of  this  Seminary  and  by  the  students 
of  their  care.  Were  it  not  so,  I  should  never 
have  ventured  into  relations  so  new  to  me, 
so  conspicuous,  so  arduous,  and  so  solemn  ! 
Brethren^  pray  for  us.  As  prays  the  church, 
so  prospers  the  ministry. 

Such  a  ministry  as  that  respected,  I  would 
characterize  as  truly  pious;  endowed  with 
sound  and  respectable  natural  talents ;  sober- 
ly and  correctly  learned  ;  comparatively  com- 


100  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

peteut  to  the  work ;  religiously  devoted  to  it ; 
morally  courageous  and  independent  in  it ; 
instructive  and  durable  as  preachers  ;  self- 
denying  and  spiritual  in  all  their  ministra- 
tions ;  and  looking  for  their  reward  in  the 
other  world :  all  these,  according  to  the  re- 
quisitions and  definitions  of  the  constitu- 
tional standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  these  United  States.  It  will  less  comport 
with  the  nature  of  this  address,  or  the  claims 
of  the  occasion,  to  treat  with  amplitude  or  in 
detail  any  one  of  these  7iine  characteristics.  I 
profess  only  to  state  them.  My  honored  bre- 
thren in  the  ministry  who  hear  me,  know 
what  they  mean,  to  whom  they  will  seem 
at  once  sufficiently  intelligible  and  sufficient- 
ly definite  The  outline  may  have  its  full  ex- 
pansion and  accomplishment  hereafter,  in  the 
appropriate  lectures  of  the  chair  I  am  to  oc- 
cupy, and  to  the  precious  young  brethren 
whose  servant  in  the  Lord  I  am  to  be  in  that 
department which  refers  much  to  the  for- 
mation of  their  practical  character,  for  the  pul- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  101 

pit,  the  parish,  and  every  other  sphere  of  offi- 
cial administration.  In  this  I  shall  endeavor 
progressively  to  understand  my  duty  and 
faithfully  to  perform  it.  What  is  yet  to  be  of- 
fered may  claim  your  attention  in  a  way  of 

OBSERVATIONS     ON    WHAT     THE     MINISTRY 

OUGHT  TO  BE,  and  what  it  shall  be  my  aim  to 
make  it,  as  at  present  advised  and  persuaded 
in  these  high  and  responsible  relations.  In 
three  words  mainly  can  I  express  its  charac- 
ter ;  it  should  be  scriptural,  practical, 

DURABLE. 

1.  We  need  a  ministry  richly,  ably, 

AND  ABUNDANTLY  SCRIPTURAL  IN  ITS  CHA- 
RACTER. I  mean  such  a  ministry  in  distinc- 
tion, and  even  in  contradistinction,  to  every 
other  ;  whether  of  ostentatious  learning  or 
courtly  parade  or  vapid  sentimentalism ;  of 
poetry,  fashion,  and  theatrical  artifice  ;  of  me- 
taphysical abstraction  or  technical  aridity  or 
philosophical  speculation  ;  of  symbolical  or- 
thodoxy, with  its  bodies  of  divinity,  its  com- 
mentaries and  quotations,  its  synopses  and 
9* 


( 

102  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

thesauruses,  its  verbose  and  literalizing  dog- 
matism, its  voluminous  human  authorities; 
or  a  ministry  of  disputatious  and  polemical 
severity ;  or  of  routine  and  formal  common 
places ;  of  mechanical  symmetry  and  vain 
theorizing ;  or  of  the  style  of  mere  harangue 
rhetorically  produced ;  or  of  declamation  and 
glare  and  mannerism,  such  as  takes  the  vul- 
gar and  grieves  the  judicious ;  or  of  the  school 
or  class  who  preach  topically  alone,  on  a  set 
of  subjects  docketed  and  limited,  arranged  not 
in  scriptural  proportion  and  relation,  and  of- 
ten savoring  more  of  man  than  God  in  all 
their  pretension,  their  fascination,  and  their 
pomp. 

A  scriptural  minist^  is  one  that  honors  the 
revealed  manner^  as  well  as  the  revealed  mat- 
ter^ of  that  volume  which  God  gave  us  as  our 
paramount  rule  in  religion  ;  "to  direct  us  how 
we  may  glorify  and  enjoy  him."  The  Scrip- 
tures were  evidently  written  also  with  the 
main  and  formal  intention  of  giving  to  the 
ministry  their  official  furniture  and  equip- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  103 

ment :  that  the  man  of  God  may  he  perfect^ 
thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  ivories. 
The  man  of  God  must  respond  to  the  will  of 
his  Master.  He  ought  to  be  very  correctly  fa- 
miliar with  the  volume  of  God.  He  ought  to 
read  it  with  ease  and  accuracy,  with  mastery 
and  frequency,  in  its  inspired  originals.  He 
ought  to  be  a  good  and  a  full  interpreter ;  to 
be  lucidly  and  attractively  exegetical  in  the 
main  of  his  discourses.  To  be  mighty  in  the 
Scriptuj^es,  ought  to  qualify  his  ministrations 
and  enrich  his  eloquence.  Without  this  cha- 
racter impressed  and  pervading,  whoever  he 
be,  and  however  brilliant  and  learned  and 
profound,  nay,  however  pious,  he  will  be  com- 
paratively powerless  and  unprofitable ;  he  will 
be  unsanctioned  and  unprospered ;  and  such 
is  human  wisdom  that  he  will  err ;  he  will 
soon  be  elaborately  wrong ;  he  will  thence  be 
found  making  an  orthodoxy  of  his  deviations, 
and  a  standard  for  the  whole  church,  and  the 
whole  ministry  too,  of  his  fond  and  bigoted 
mistakes.     A  minister  is  a  message-bearer. 


104  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

Should  he  then  give  it  as  he  gets  it,  or  should 
he  ingeniously  vary  it  by  way  of  improve- 
ment on  the  road?  Preach  the  preaching  that 
I  hid  thee,  says  God.    Son  of  man,  I  have 
made  thee  a  watchman  unto  the  house  of  Is- 
rael; therefore  hear  the  word  at  my  mouth, 
and  give  them  warning  from  me.    For  we  are 
not  as  many,  who  corrupt  [dilute]  the  word  of 
God :  but  as  of  sincerity,  but  as  of  God,  in  the 
sight  of  God  speak  we  in  Christ.  All  double 
dealing,  all  compromise,  all   cowardice,  all 
abandonment  of  principle,  must  be  honestly 
and  totally  precluded.  Through  the  minister 
of  Christ,  the  Scriptures  should  address  man- 
kind ;  and  find  in  him  their  expounder,  their 
echo,  and  their  oracle.    He  should  have  no 
objects  or  designs  which  he  cannot  invincibly 
identify  with  the   contents  or  the  scope  of 
Scripture,  either  by  direct  testimony  or  plain 
demonstration.  He  should  trace  the  Scripture 
relations  of  truth,  and  evince  them  Avith  lu- 
minous proof  and  powerful  application.     He 
must  be  largely  expository,  as  well  as  richly 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  105 

didactic.  He  is  sent  to  preach  a  gospel,  not 
to  modify  or  invent  one.  He  is  to  bear  the 
messages  of  God,  as  his  mouth  unto  them ; 
and  he  must  deUver  each  as  it  is,  incorruptly 
and  with  manly  faithfulness.  He  must  illus- 
trate the  wordj  not  darken  it ;  he  must  rescue 
it  from  its  enemies,  and  show  its  divine  and 
eternal  excellency.  He  must  sometimes  do 
the  harder  work  of  rescuing  it  from  its  friends, 
and  vindicating  its  true  nature  against  their 
theories,  their  explanations,  and  their  sincere 
mistakes.  He  must  give  to  each  truth  its 
Scriptural  form  and  pressure,  without  invad- 
ing as  there  exemplified  its  admirable  propor- 
tions. He  must  show  all  the  mercy  of  the 
gospel,  as  well  as  all  the  wrath  ;  he  must  ho- 
nor adequately,  and  not  dare  to  refine  away 
the  oflTer  of  salvation  which  is  made  in  the 
gospel  to  every  hearer ;  stating  it,  clearing  it, 
urging  it,  in  all  its  fulness,  freedom,  consist- 
ency, sincerity,  and  obligation,  that  it  may  be 
duly  accepted  ;  he  must  never  make  a  rule  of 
action  of  an  article  of  faith,  or  mistake  what 


106  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

is  a  rule  for  God,  and  a  creed  for  man,  to  be 
the  reverse  of  both  in  its  several  relations ; 
nor  must  he  expect  to  be  deeply  skilful  in  the 
word  of  righteousness,  until  he  wisely  and 
constantly  and  even  with  rigid  exactitude  dis- 
criminates truth,  as  morally  related  to  the  cre- 
denda  or  the  agenda  of  religion :  nor  must 
he  forget  that  he  is  not  at  all  responsible  for 
the  gospel  itself,  which  he  did  not  make,  which 
will  live  and  be  glorified  when  all  its  final 
enemies  are  in  hell,  and  which  disdains  apo- 
logy, concealment,  or  compromise  ;  even  as 
it  abhors  all  pious  fraud,  all  Jesuitry  and  cun- 
ning and  shallow  expediency,  and  denounces 
every  approach  to  the  diabolical  ethics  of  do- 
ing evil  that  good  may  come. 

By  Sacred  Rhetoric  I  understand  that 
public  or  official  speaking,  in  which  a  mi- 
nister of  God,  especially  in  the  pulpit,  aims 
to  commend  the  gospel,  with  all  its  truth 
and  all  its  duties,  to  the  intelligence,  the 
love,  and  the  practice  of  his  hearers  ;  de- 
pending not  less  on  the  wisdom  and  the 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  107 

worth  of  his  own  efforts  as  the  means,  be- 
cause he  trusts  in  God  only  that  giveth  the 
increase,  for  his  success  in  their  salvation. 
It  is  the  science  and  the  art  of  rhetoric  in 
preaching,  and  as  applied  to  the  ends  of  the 
promulgated  gospel.  It  involves  more  than 
the  wisdom  of  the  schools  and  the  attain- 
ments of  the  scholar.  It  is  sacred^  practical, 
peculiar  ;  as  its  business  is  hallowed  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  highest  interests  of  man. 
It  is  rhetoric  occupied  in  the  most  glorious 
way  and  to  the  most  honorable  ends.  It  is 
eloquence  of  the  purest  character  that  ever 
awoke  the  glory  of  our  frame.  But  it  may 
not  disdain  the  discipline  of  preparation,  the 
help  of  experienced  counsel,  the  advantage 
of  good  rules,  and  the  knowledge  of  all  the 
dangers  and  the  faults  that  taste  and  judg- 
ment and  piety,  singly  or  together,  indicate 
and  prescribe.  By  Pastoral  Theology  I  un- 
derstand, the  application  of  biblical  truth 
and  its  actual  contact  with  mind,  in  all  the 


108  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS, 

various  and  most  solemnly  interesting  rela- 
tions of  the  pastoral  care ;  the  nature  and 
the  duties  of  that  care  ;  the  wise  administra- 
tion and  government  which  a  pastor  is  call- 
ed to  exemplify  ;  the  best  way  of  being  use- 
ful in  these  relations ;  the  principles,  rules, 
and  maxims  of  a  sound  practice,  which  have 
received  the  seals  and  the  sanctions  of  ex- 
perience, as  allied  to  the  blessing  of  God 
and  the  salvation  of  men.  The  best  manner 
of  presenting  truth  and  enforcing  it ;  the  er- 
rors one  ought  to  avoid  and  the  excellencies 
to  be  attained  ;  the  solution  of  difficult  ques- 
tions in  actual  casuistry  ;  the  manners  per- 
sonal of  the  pastor,  his  dangers,  his  discou- 
ragements, his  temptations,  his  labors,  his 
pressures,  his  successes,  his  comforts  and 
supports,  his  duty  and  his  total  service,  his 
true  usefulness,  his  final  glory  and  reward  ; 
these  are  the  topics  comprised ;  important, 
complicated,  and  of  their  own  character 
throughout.     And  by  these  conjointly,  that 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  109 

IS,  Sacred  Rhetoric  and  Pastoral  The- 
ology, I  understand  the  whole  function 
OF  the  ministry  in  its  action  on  the  popu- 
lar mind  ;  intending  the  ways  of  wisdom,  of 
experience  and  the  divine  blessing,  as  contrast- 
ed with  those  of  an  opposite  description,  in  all 
the  appropriate  duties  of  the  Christian  minis- 
try. How  scriptural  in  all  things,  becomes 
it  every  minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to 
be !  Speaking  the  truth  in  love ;  speaking  as 
the  oracles  of  God ! 

The  duties  of  my  position  in  the  Seminary 
will  consist  of  two  kindred  and  yet  distinct 
classes,  referring  respectively  to  the  depart- 
ments of  the  pulpit  and  the  parish,  to  the  work 
of  the  preacher  and  the  pastor  in  the  church 
of  God.  This  is  expressed  in  the  very  title  of 
the  chair  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and  Pasto- 
ral Theology. 

All  my  experience  as  a  preacher  for  nearly 

nineteen  years,  and  as  a  pastor  for  almost  the 

same  period,  connected  with  some  extensive 

observation  and  special  opportunities,  deepens 

10 


110  tNAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

in  my  soul  every  way  the  conviction  of  the 
cardinal  importance  of  a  ministry,  as  1  have 

said,     RICHLY,    ABLY,      AND     ABUNDANTLY 

SCRIPTURAL  in  its  character.  I  have  no 
words,  no  time,  no  power,  now  to  transmit 
this  impression  or  here  to  array  its  argument. 
To  the  want  of  this  quahty  I  think,  may  be 
attributed  in  an  eminent  degree  the  failure  of 
thousands,  whose  success  in  every  other  re- 
spect seemed  certain.  Hence  they  have  often 
become  confounded  with  their  own  non-suc- 
cess ;  have  been  indignant,  petulant,  pugna- 
cious ;  have  blamed  others  for  faults  in  their 
own  bosoms ;  have  ascribed  it  to  any  cause  but 
the  true  one ;  and  have  deceitfully  in  some  in- 
stances endeavored  to  fight  into  honor  a  wan- 
ing reputation,  by  those  impeachable  reflec- 
tions of  orthodoxy  and  shadowy  illusions  of 
superior  wisdom,  which  they  desperately  court 
in  a  way  of  resolutely  defaming  their  more 
prosperous  brethren.  Some  such  possibly  we 
have  all  known.  But  where  are  the  probabi- 
lities to  be  found  of  a  more  pious  or  devoted 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  Ill 

or  heaven-favored  ministry,  comparable  to 
those  which  are  associated  with  a  more  scrip- 
tural one?  It  is  here  that  we  look  for  the 
dews  of  heaven  to  fall  in  their  richness.  It  is 
liere  that  we  expect  the  hlessins^,  even  life 
forevermore.  The  conclusion  is  that  the 
])reacher  in  the  pulpit,  and  the  pastor  out  of 
it,  and  the  minister  of  Christ  every  Avhere, 
should  be  the  living  personification  of  the 
whole  contents  of  the  inspired  volume.  In 
exact  proportion  as  this  end  is  pursued  and 
attained,  and  in  no  other,  may  all  our  best 
hopes  be  graduated  of  the  progress  of  purity, 
peace,  and  order  in  the  church,  and  the  flou- 
rishing of  true  religion  in  all  our  parishes.  It 
was  a  significant  saying  of  the  late  Dr.  Rice, 
and  most  significantly  said  on  an  occasion 
that  I  well  remember :  The  Bible  is  ortho- 
dox ENOUGH  FOR  ME.  It  SHALL  BE  THE 
LIGHT  OF  THE  SeMINARY  AS  LONG  AS  I  AM 
IN  IT  ;  AND  ALL  MY  AIMS  SHALL  BE  SUBOR- 
DINATE TO  THE  HIGH  BUSINESS  OF  PREPAR- 
ING   A    MINISTRY    THAT     SHALL    HONOR    IT 


112 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS, 


EQUALLY  AS    THE    ONLY  AUTHENTIC   LIGHT 

OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  GoD.  I  give  the  sub- 
Stance  of  his  words.  His  object  was  to  put 
the  Bible  in  its  place,  against  the  idolatry  that 
degrades  it ;  and  to  show  his  contempt  of  any 
innovation  or  artifice  or  unprotestant  predi- 
lection that  supersedes  it. 

It  is  not  meant  here,  my  brethren,  that  there 
is  no  place  for  the  wisdom  of  a  preacher  to 
act,  and  to  achieve,  in  the  service  he  per- 
forms. Far  from  it.  Philosophy  and  the  her- 
meneutic  art  or  science,  for  both  are  included^ 
should  constitute  not  alone  the  definition  and 
the  accomplishment  of  a  preacher.  It  is  meant, 
however,  to  magnify  them,  and  insist  on  their 
primary  and  subsidiary  importance.  One  must 
understand  the  letters,  words,  and  sentences 
of  the  original.  He  must  observe  the  style  of 
the  writer  and  the  usage  of  the  book.  He  must 
comprehend  the  grammar  and  the  construc- 
tion ;  consult  the  scope  of  the  passage  and  the 
connection  of  the  whole  ;  consider  the  analo- 
gy of  faith  and  the  laws  of  mind  ;  enter  into 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  113 

the  spirit  of  the  argument  and  ilhistrate  cor- 
rectly the  native  sense  of  the  text.  We  object 
not  to  science^  any  quantity  of  it ;  if  it  be  not 
falsely  so  called  and  doating  in  its  oppositions 
to  the  Father  of  hghts.  We  are  not  unfriend- 
ly to  philosophy,  if  it  be  not  atheistically  mad, 
or  sceptically  vain,  or  incorrigibly  perverse, 
as  that  blind  accursed  thing  which  God  de- 
nounces as  allied  to  vain  deceit,  after  the 
Iradition  of  men.,  after  the  rudiments  of  the 
world y  and  not  after  Christ;  for  in  him 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily; 
and  we  are  complete  in  him,  who  is  the  head 
of  all  principality  and  power ;  whom  ihc  ar- 
mies in  heaven  follow.  Let  those  shining 
hosts  innumerable,  who  worship  him  there, 
desert  the  Head  of  angels  and  of  men — before 
we  attempt  it !  We  are  not  opposed  to  theory, 
to  system,  to  analysis  and  synthesis,  profound 
and  on  all  subjects.  The  evil  of  system  con- 
sists not  in  having  one — for  no  thinker  is 
without  one,  right  or  wrong,  true  or  false,  wise 
or  foolish,  amiable  or  odious,  salutary  or  de- 
10' 


114  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

Struct! ve.  He  believes  error  who  disbelieves 
truth.  Some  of  the  most  certain  truths  in  in- 
tellectual philosophy  demonstrate  the  impos- 
sibility of  having  no  system.  The  evil  of  sys- 
tem consists  wholly  in  having  a  wrong  one  ; 
and  this  partially  or  totally,  in  proportion  to 
the  degree  or  kind  of  error  it  includes.  Indo- 
lence, vacuity,  dreaming,  presumption,  indif- 
ference, neglect,  sensuality,  and  voluntary  stu- 
pidity, are  all  much  of  a  sort,  for  innocence 
and  safety,  in  superseding  the  influence  of  the 
gospel  in  the  human  mind,  and  pre-eminently 
in  the  mind  of  a  preacher.  He  must  preach 
not  what  he  thinks  merely,  however  sincerely 
he  may  think  it ;  but  the  gospel,  as  God  has  re- 
vealed it  and  made  us  perfectly  accountable 
for  knowing  what  it  is.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  truth,  and  this  is  what  we  want  in  the  pul- 
pit and  every  where.  Truth  has  come  into 
the  world  and  men  might  know  it.  The 
preacher  ought  to  know  it,  with  copious  and 
pervading  conviction  ;  with  decision  and  de- 
light.   He  ought  to  have  also  a  code  of  gene- 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  115 

ral  principles,  of  which  the  certainty  is  mani- 
fest or  easily  shown,  and  as  such  generally 
admitted.  He  must  understand  the  philosophy 
of  causation,  at  least  so  far  as  to  avoid  the  pal- 
pable fooleries  into  which  ignorance  is  too 
easily  betrayed.  He  must  know  how  to  distin- 
guish between  what  is  physical  and  what  is 
moral,  especially  in  anthropology,  as  related 
to  religion.  He  must  avoid  materialism,  and 
understand  the  glory  of  spirituality  as  distinct 
from  it.  He  must  in  a  word  be  wise  and  vi- 
gilant ;  exercising  a  sound  discretion,  a  deep 
and  clear  intelligence ;  giving  to  his  hearers 
less  the  processes,  than  the  results,  of  learned 
investigation.  He  must  prove  the  armor  that 
he  carries,  and  especially  that  he  wields;  and 
be  in  this  sense  an  experimental  preacher, 
evincing  that  he  lives  himself,  with  healthful 
relish  and  digestion,  on  the  food  he  gives  to 
others;  and  with  which,  as  their  shepherd, 
he  feeds  the  flock  of  God.  He  must  abhor  the 
idea  of  formalism  in  devotion,  servility  in  sen- 
timent, and  plagiarism  in  eloquence.  He  must 


116  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

not  depend  on  second  sight,  if  I  may  so  ex- 
press it,  in  theology ;  or  trust  to  the  eyes  of 
others,  possibly  to  their  inferences  and  fancies, 
for  those  pure  truths  of  which  the  fountains 
are  open  and  accessible  and  obligated  to  his 
advances.  A  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  must 
not  degrade  himself  to  the  herd  of  copyists, 
acolothists,  and  imitators.  He  must  be  a 
thinker  in  religion  ;  not  only  knowing  how  to 
think,  and  habituating  the  exercise,  and  do- 
ing it  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  church,  but  delighting  in  it  as  full  of  pro- 
fit and  luxury  all  its  own.  Juvat  integros  ac- 
cedere  fontes.  He  must  not  fear  within  proper 
limits  to  be  himself,  the  creature  that  God 
made  him.  He  must  have  in  this  way  all  the 
power  and  worth,  and  even  the  fame  of  origi- 
nality ;  without  its  vanity,  its  affectation,  or 
its  eccentricity.  He  should  never  mistake  in- 
novation for  improvement  or  novelty  for  truth ; 
nor  yet  be  wedded  at  such  a  rate  to  what  is 
old  and  common,  merely  because  it  is  such, 
or  because  so  says  the  proverb  of  the  ancients, 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  117 

that,  as  the  hard-hearted  voluptuary  spurns 
hungry  beggars  from  his  door,  so  he  sends 
truth  and  evidence  authoritatively  away  from 
him.  He  must  well  understand  the  history  of 
the  Bible :  as  related  to  its  enemies  and  its 
friends ;  its  canonical  authority  and  its  vain 
apocryphal  rivals,  whether  of  the  old  or  the 
new  dispensation  ;  its  textual  integrity  and  its 
wonderful  identity ;  its  authenticity,  and  above 
all,  its  inspiration  and  supremacy,  as  our  rule 
in  religion.  He  must  know  the  use  which  its 
Author  hath  assigned  it  in  the  administration 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  and  as  an  enlight- 
ened and  determined  protestant,  must  he  ever 
evince  and  maintain  its  sufficiency  for  all  the 
ends  of  worship  and  salvation ;  and  this, 
against  the  impious  arrofi^ance  of  every  coun- 
tervailing human  authority ;  whether  coming 
in  the  forms  of  tradition,  or  the  sentiments  of 
the  fathers,  or  the  practice  of  the  ancient 
churches,  or  the  decrees  of  synods  and  coun- 
cils, or  the  pandects  of  the  canonists,  or  the 
pride  of  prelates,  or  the  orders  of  the  Sove- 


118  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

reign  Pontiff,  He  must  even  keep  in  their 
place  tlie  excellent  symbols  of  our  protestant 
faith  and  the  uninspired  formularies  of  our 
own  church  ;  for  these,  wise  and  worthy  as 
they  are,  are  not  to  be  worshipped  as  divine. 
They  may  be  easily  distorted  and  perverted, 
and  even  idolatrously  exalted  and  preferred, 
as  they  often  have  been,  by  the  superficial,  the 
lovers  of  logomachy,  and  the  charged  con- 
ductors of  discord  among  brethren :  and  this, 
in  contrariety  no  less  to  their  own  nature  and 
prescription,  to  their  proper  use  and  their  ca- 
tholic intention,  than  to  the  peace  of  the 
church  and  the  real  interests  of  purity  and  or- 
der within  her  venerable  pale.  And  who  are 
they  that  perform  this  apotheosis  ?  that  idola- 
trize  in  a  style  so  select  and  specious  ?  who  are 
the  war-makers  ?  Are  they  the  more  spiritual, 
laborious,  devoted,  deeply-read,  prospered  of 
God,  useful,  experienced,  thorough,  self-de- 
nied, meek,  exemplary?  Who  are  they?  Nov) 
I  beseech  t/ou,  brethren,  mark  them  that 

CAUSE  DIVISIONS  AND  OFFENCES,  C07ltrari/ tO 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  119 

the  doctrine  which  yehave  learned;  and  avoid 
THEM.  Let  them  alone,  and  their  ephemeral 
notoriety  will  soon  die  a  natural  death.  Were 
they  occupied  as  they  ought  to  be,  in  the  ser- 
vice of  souls,  they  would  become  the  subjects 
of  far  different  and  far  better  feelings.  More 
magnanimous  too  it  is,  and  worthier  of  a  func- 
tionary of  the  King  of  heaven,  to  engage  with 
liis  enemies  rather  than  his  friends ;  and  to 
do  the  thing  better  ourselves^  rather  than  su- 
pinely to  do  nothing  in  that  way,  while  one 
does  nothing  else  so  busily  as  find  fault  with 
the  doings  of  our  brethren,  who  hecve  jeopard- 
ed their  lives  unto  the  death  in  the  high  places 
of  the  field.  Laborers  in  the  harvest^  are  ve- 
nerable men,  and  dear  should  be  their  names. 
Here  I  may  add,  what  some  experience  and 
observation,  perhaps  peculiar,  have  brought 
me  profoundly  to  believe,  that  the  Christian, 
and  pre-eminently  the  Christian  bishop  in  the 
church  of  God,  ought  to  be  large  and  noble 
in  his  feelings,  conciliating  and  slow  to  cen- 
sure ;  not  suspicious,  sarcastic,  caustic,  or  vi* 


120  INAUGURAL  Address'. 

tuperative  ;  full  of  that  heavenly  quality  that 
siiffereth  long  and  is  kind,  eiivieth  not,  vaunt- 
eth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up,  doth  not  be- 
have itself  unseemly ,  seeketh  not  its  oivn,  is  not 
easily  prowked,  thinketh  no  evil,  rejoiceth  not 
in  iniquity,  hut  fejoiceth  in  the  truth.  Prin- 
ciples indeed  are  open  to  us ;  persons  more 
pertain  to  the  bishoprick  of  God.  One  should 
not  be  fond  to  exert  spontaneously  an  archi- 
episcopal  care,  by  virtual  usurpation  over  his 
ecclesiastical  peers,  his  ministerial  brethren, 
his  co-presbyters  in  the  church,  and  very  pos- 
sibly his  betters  in  the  eye  of  the  Judge.  He 
should  be  no  heresy-hunter ;  and  very  slow 
and  deeply  sorrowful  in  secret  places  should 
he  be,  to  become  a  heresy-finder.  He  should 
not  be  the  keeper  of  the  humility  of  his  bre- 
thren, even  when  his  own  is  flourishing.  He 
should  make  no  man  an  offe7ider  for  a  word, 
a  mistake,  an  infelicity,  a  phrase  exceptiona- 
ble, or  even  for  an  inconsiderable  fault.  Mu- 
tual forbearance  is  a  high  and  imperious  du- 
ty, as  well  as  a  rare  virtue,  in  a  world  like 


INAtGtJRAL   ADDRESS.  121 

Clii's.  Without  it,  no  social  organization  could 
exist  on  earth  ;  and  not  Certainly  the  church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  purest  times  it  ever 
saw.  There  are  many  questions  which  can 
never  be  settled.  They  belong  to  ground 
fairly  debateable,  that  is  open  and  common  to 
all.  And  authority,  which  is  often  nothing 
but  arrogance  sanctifying  its  encroachments^ 
can  never  be  an  oracle  in  this  country,  nor 
properly  in  any  other.  Little  peace,  however^ 
may  be  expected  in  the  church,  where  that 
primary  question  of  the  apostles  is  not  proper- 
ly decided  and  at  rest,  as  easily  it  might  be 

by  the   authority  of  our  Master Who 

SHALL  BE  THE  GREATEST  ?  Poor  human  na- 
ture !  Learn  to  be  humble,  or  thou  wilt  never 
be  wise,  much  as  thou  disjmtest  by  the  way  ! 
Let  us  bring  a  little  child  and  set  him  in  the 
midst ;  and  then  let  us  all  dread  the  rebuke 
of  that  Master  and  Lord^  who  abhors  the 
guise  and  the  gall  of  pontiff  pride,  and  exalts 
John,  while  he  degrades  Diotrephes,  in  his 
unsuffering  kingdom.  O  for  pre-eminence  in 
U 


122  INAUGURAL    ADDRES3. 

meekness  and  humility  !  O  that  tlie  sons  of 
Levi  were  purified^  and  purged  as  gold  and 
silver^  for  the  service  of  the  altar  and  the  of- 
ferings of  righteousness  ! 

It  will  be  a  distinct  aim  with  me,  in  aiding 
the  formation  of  the  ministry  here,  to  improve 
if  possible  that  too  generally  neglected  part  of 
public  worship,  the  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. This  is  often  performed  in  dilferent 
ways,  I  may  sayj  so  miserably^  that  it  is  rather 
tolerated,  than  enjoyed,  in  our  solemn  assem- 
blies. Hence  every  other  part  of  the  service 
suffers  with  it  and  is  deteriorated  by  it,  in- 
stead of  an  eifect  splendidly  the  reverse.  The 
sacred  volume  ought  to  be  read  with  articulate 
distinctness  and  judicious  tones  and  pauses, 
without  monotony  or  drawling  or  affectation 
of  any  sort.  It  should  be  read  with  vivacity, 
simplicity,  nature,  and  correct  emphasis.  It 
should  be  read  with  solemn  interest,  as  it  be- 
cometh  the  Oracles  of  God.  It  should  be  read 
with  due  reverence,  as  infinitely  the  most  pre- 
cious volume  in  the  world ;  worth  more  than  a 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  123 

universe  of  libraries  without  it.  The  people 
should  herein  be  taught  how  to  read  it  with 
advantage,  and  to  prize  it  eminently  among  the 
constituent  parts  of  the  public  service  of  God. 
To  read  it  well,  should  be  considered  much,  in 
rating  the  gifts,  the  graces,  and  the  promise,  as 
well  as  in  estimating  the  usefulness,  of  a  minis- 
ter. He  should  read  it  too  with  such  occasional 
observations,  wisely  interspersed,  as  seem  ne- 
cessary in  order  to  arrest  the  attention,  direct 
the  thoughts,  and  interest  the  feelings,  of  a 
profited  congregation.  It  ought  to  be  viewed 
as  one  of  the  most  important  and  refreshing 
portions  of  the  service.  It  ought  to  be  so  per- 
formed by  the  minister,  as  to  be  desired  and 
relished  by  the  people.  Its  use  is  wonderful. 
I  would  have  it  in  the  afternoon  of  every 
Lord's  day,  as  well  as  the  morning ;  at  the 
weekly  lecture,  and  ordinarily  at  every  pub- 
lic service.  It  prepares  the  minds  of  all  for 
subsequent  duties.  It  is  the  voice  of  God 
speaking  in  the  sanctuary  of  his  presence. 
Its  tendency  and  its  effect  would  ordinarily 


124  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

be,  to  aggrandize  the  value  of  that  peerless 
Book  in  the  just  estimation  of  men.  It  would 
beget  scriptural  sentiment  in  the  community, 
and  habits  of  consulting  the  lively  oracles.  It 
would  put  due  honor  on  the  grand  instru- 
ment by  which  the  King  of  Grace  accom- 
plishes his  people  for  himself  and  cleanses 
them  for  heaven.  It  would  tend  powerfully 
to  theologize  the  community,  in  a  style  the 
most  superhuman  and  useful.  The  questions 
of  popular  conversation  would  be  less  abstract, 
technical,  inapposite ;  as  they  became  more 
scriptural,  textual,  definite.  They  would  not 
be  so  much,  What  thinkest  thou  ?  Or  what  is 
the  opinion  of  this  great  man  or  that  learned 
one  ?  But,  What  saith  the  Scripture  ?  What 
are  the  words  of  the  text  ?  Where  is  it  found  ? 
What  is  the  connection  ?  What  does  it  mean  ? 
How  readest  thou  ?  Understandest  thou  what 
thou  readest  ?  and  such  like,  which  are  nei- 
ther 2mle  armed  nor  foolish,  and  which  every 
one  sees  are  worth  answering.  Its  effect  on 
the  pastor  and  the  preacher  would  be  excel- 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  125 

lent.  It  would  necessitate  him  to  study  more 
the  Bible  ;  to  be  more  biblically  rich  and  her- 
meneutically  wise,  more  varied  in  illustration, 
more  attractive,  useful,  agreeable,  and  de- 
lighted in  his  work.  A  pastor  that  has  taught 
his  people  to  read  the  Scriptures,  enlighten- 
ing their  understandings  to  value  them ;  and 
has  brought  their  heavenly  meaning  into  vi- 
vid contact  with  their  minds,  lodging  there 
the  word  of  Christ  richly  in  all  ivisdom,  is  a 
noble  and  a  mighty  public  benefactor.  Can 
his  people  ever  probably  become  the  victims 
of  infidelity  or  soul-subverting  error  ?  He  has 
done  for  them  what  no  monumental  trophies 
could  so  well  commemorate  or  reward,  as  will, 
probably  for  ages,  the  fruit  itself  of  his  minis- 
trations, loading  the  branches  of  those  trees 
of  righteousness  that  have  enjoyed  the  ad- 
vantage of  his  heavenly  culture  and  which 
are  plainly  the  jolanting  of  the  Lord  that  he 
may  he  glorified. 

But  are  these  results  comparatively  to  be 
expected,  where  the  ministry  is  faulty,  negli- 
11* 


126  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

gent,  hurried,  dronins:,  inarticulate,  dry,  and 
every  way  uninteresting,  if  not  absolutely  re- 
pulsive, in  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures? 
Judge  3^e.  In  what  I  have  said  on  the  topic, 
it  seems  demonstrable  that  I  have  only  echoed 
the  sentiments  of  our  ecclesiastical  constitu- 
tion ;  where  we  are  taught  that  '•  The  read- 
ing of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  the  congrega- 
tion is  a  part  of  the  public  worship  of  God, 
and  ought  to  be  performed  by  the  ministers 
and  teachers — from  the  most  approved  trans- 
lation, in  the  vulgar  tongue,  that  all  may  hear 
and  understand.  How  large  a  portion  shall  be 
read  at  once,  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  every 
minister ;  however,  in  each  service,  he  ought 
to  read,  at  least,  one  chapter ;  and  more,  when 
the  chapters  are  short,  or  the  connection  re- 
quires it.  He  may,  when  he  thinks  it  expe- 
dient, expound  any  part  of  what  is  read,  al- 
ways having  regard  to  the  time"  in  proportion 
to  the  other  parts  of  the  service.  From  the 
remarks  and  considerations  now  submitted,  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  127 

in  public  is  a  very  important  part  of  the  du- 
ties of  the  ministry ;  that  it  is  a  duty  that  has 
been  too  Uttle  contemplated  or  honored  in  the 
performance  ;  that  there  is  room  here  for  great 
and  excellent  improvement ;  and  that  a  re- 
newed attention  to  it,  in  the  official  training 
of  our  consecrated  youth,  is  a  great  desidera- 
tum in  our  Theological  Seminaries.  Brethren, 
in  this  toe  speak  that  we  do  know,  and  testify 
that  w'e  have  seen  ;  and  it  is  not  ye  that  receive 
not  our  witness.  It  has  long  been  a  subject 
of  complaint,  and  a  matter  of  grief,  among  the 
judicious  and  the  devout.  It  has  often  depre- 
ciated a  minister  in  the  estimate  of  many, 
whom  other  considerations  could  never  reco- 
ver to  their  predilections.  It  has  been  a  grow- 
ing neglect  in  some  places,  and  is  a  depart- 
ment worthy  of  more  attention  in  all.  For, 
2.  We  need  every  where  a  practical  mi- 
nistry. By  this  is  not  meant  an  illiterate 
one  ;  or  one  devoid  of  technical  knowledge 
and  philosophy  ;  or  without  mental  discipline, 
general  reading,  and  the  training  of  intellec- 


128  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

tual  habits  and  experience ;  nor  one  ignorant 
of  the  theories  and  the  heresies  of  the  ancients 
or  the  moderns.  Let  him  have  fully  all  the  lore 
of  the  profession ;  and  be  a  thorough  scholar  in 
its  abstractions,  and  if  you  will  in  its  hair-split- 
ting niceties  and  refined  discriminations.  But 
he  must  have  more  than  these,  and  be  more. 
He  must  show  qualities  of  business  and  ser- 
vice, of  address  and  despatch,  of  conduct  and 
performance ;  or,  the  point  of  all  our  aims  is 

lost — AN   EFFECTIVE    MINISTRY.       We  Want 

men  who  can  do  what  others  talk  about ;  and 
return  loith  rejoimig,  bringing  their  sheaves 
with  them.  Now  this  is  sometimes  remarka- 
bly not  the  case.  We  have  seen  young  preach- 
ers bearing  the  regular  commission  of  the 
churches,  who  had  proceeded  with  the  bright- 
est honors  of  their  theological  Alma  Mater, 
first  in  their  class  and  already  famous  beyond 
its  precincts,  who  were  not  practical,  whatever 
else  they  were  :  and  who,  with  noble  gifts  be- 
side both  natural  and  acquired,  were  nullities 
in  conduct,  because  of  this  defect.     Before  a 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  129 

respectable  audience,  they  could  neither  speak 
intelligibly  and  well,  nor  appear  with  ease  and 
dignity,  nor  do  justice  to  their  own  powers  or 
virtues  or  attainments  ;  nor  act  their  part  in 
the  service  even  in  reading  properly  a  hymn. 
But  they  were  learned  men,  their  papers  said  ; 
and  truly  it  is  possible  they  were.  These, 
however,  are  not  the  kind  needed  by  the 
church  in  this  country  and  especially  in  this 
age.  They  were  not  practical  men ;  and 
whatever  they  were  out  of  the  pulpit,  they 
were  unacceptable,  unprofitable,  unwelcome 
in  it.  We  Avant  men  that  can  execute  and 
achieve ;  men  that  understand  a  little,  the 
work  they  have  to  do  all  the  days  of  their 
life  ;  men  skilled  in  the  science  of  human  na- 
ture as  it  is,  knowing  what  it  ought  to  be, 
conversant  with  things,  commanding  in  man- 
ner, versatile  in  methods  of  address,  and  large- 
ly influential  in  their  ministrations  ;  men 
whose  weight  is  felt,  whose  character  is 
brought  to  bear  on  others,  and  who  inspire  a 
kindred  sympatliy  in  listening  hundreds :  men 


130  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

who  show  by  their  actions  that  they  vaUie 
usefulness,  more  than  fame  or  wealth  or  ease  ; 
who  desire  to  do  good  in  God's  own  way,  and 
really  esteem  the  conversion  of  a  soul  to  Je- 
sus Christ  as  a  glory  incomparable,  to  the  in- 
strument even  by  whom  it  is  accomplished ; 
men  who  desire  usefulness  itself  more  than 
the  name  of  it,  because  they  love  God  and  be- 
cause they  love  men  who  ivere  made  after 
the  similitude  of  God. 

A  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  must  know  how 
to  behave  himself  in  the  pulpit ;  how  to  be- 
have himself  out  of  the  pulpit ;  how  to  be- 
have himself  every  where.  He  must,  says 
the  apostle  recounting  the  qualifications  of 
the  office,  he  must  be  of  good  behavior.  The 
original  word,  xoa^iog^  refers  to  what  is  fit- 
ting, well  seen,  ornate  in  manners.  It  is  al- 
lied as  a  cognate  to  the  English  word  cosme- 
tic, which  is  defined  beautifying  in  our  dic- 
tionaries ;  and  it  may  well  be  referred  to  mo- 
ral ornament,  as  the  other  respects  the  uten- 
sils of  the  toilette,  and  the  short-lived  cuta- 


INAtJGURAL    ADDRESS.  131 

lieous  elegance  it  thence  induces.  Thus  the 
meaning  of  the  expression  is,  poUte,  urbane, 
easy  and  agreeable  in  all  his  deportment. 
And  is  not  this  worthy  of  some  attention  I 
Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  am  incul- 
cating nothing  like  that  artificial  and  sickly, 
tliat  insincere  and  silly,  that  unmanly  and 
unmannerly  finesse,  which  is  the  bane  of  be- 
havior, and  the  abhorrence  of  the  wise.  All 
that  conduct  which  belongs  to  the  odious 
vice  of  aflfectation,  a  Christian  and  a  Chris- 
tian minister  must  only  nauseate  and  scorn. 
Neither  is  he  to  be  the  mimic,  or  the  slave, 
or  the  pattern  of  the  fashionable  world.  To 
all  the  garnished  meanness  of  society,  he 
must  be  utterly  superior.  But  there  is  a  me- 
dium which  he  must  aim  to  acquire.  Can  he 
not  be  dignified  and  yet  simple  ?  conciliating, 
affable,  condescending,  accessible,  sympathe- 
tic ;  without  losing  his  self-possession,  or 
crouching  to  any  mortal?  Can  he  not  be 
well-bred,  and  even  attractive  in  manners, 
without  losing  their  sanctity,  or  contaminat- 


132  tNAtjaURAL  AbDkfcfeS. 

irig  their  motive  ?  Is  he  a  profoundly  pioliS 
tnan,  desiring  in  all  things  to  glorify  his 
Master?  Well.  And  does  not  Jesus  Christ  re- 
quire of  him  the  improvement  of  all  his  giftSj 
the  extension  of  his  influence  in  order  to  his 
Usefulness,  and  to  be  courteous^  and  honor 
all  men  as  his  ambassador  ?  Certainly  there 
is  710  religion  in  dirt ;  and  there  is  none  in 
awkwardness ;  none  in  officiousness ;  none 
in  a  reckless,  austere,  repulsive  bearing  • 
none  in  a  swaggering,  consequential  gait,  or 
a  noisy  importance  of  conduct;  none  in 
"  slovenly  neglect  and  rustic  coarseness ;" 
hone  in  despising  decency  of  attire  and  per- 
sonal appearance.  The  ethics  of  the  Bible 
contain  the  perfect  and  the  only  genuine 
code  of  politeness.  Why  should  not  the 
Christian  minister  demonstrate  in  all  his  ac- 
tions, the  true  gentleman  1  To  learn  what 
this  is,  indeed,  I  would  not  send  him  to 
court,  to  the  theatre  or  the  ball-room ;  nor 
even  to  the  letters  of  Chesterfieldj  or  the  bi- 
ography of  Marlborough,  or  the  history  of 


iNAtlGtftlAL  ADDfiESS.  133 

iVince  Eugene  :  I  would  send  him  to  Jesus 
Christ,  to  thd  Apostle  Paul,  to  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  for  its  definition,  its  sanction,  and 
its  portraiture.  He  would  there  learn  when  he 
enters  a  houses  to  salute  it;  to  do  many  things 
or  forbear  many,  lest  we  shoilld  offend  them  / 
to  care,  when  hidden  to  a  feast^  to  sit  not 
down  in  the  highest  place,  or  to  select  the 
chief  rooms  ;  to  render  honor  to  ivhom  honor 
is  due ;  in  honor  to  prefer  one  another^  and 
not  each  himself;  that  before  honor  is  hn- 
mility  ;  that  every  one  of  its  ought  to  please 
his  neighbor  for  his  good  to  edification  ;  that 
love  must  be  without  dissimidation  ;  and  in 
short  that  we  must  all  pursue  tvhatsoever 
things  are  true^  honesty  just  and  pure,  not 
only,  but  also  whatsoever  things  are  lovely 
and  of  good  report ;  and  that,  if  there  be  any 
virtue^  and  if  there  he  any  ptraise^  we  must 
think  on  these  things. 

In  modern  times,  since  we  may  speak  of 
the  illustrious  dead,  I  would  cite  the  exam- 
ple of  our  own  Cornelius,  as  a  model ;  say- 
\% 


184  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

ing  no  more  to  those  who  remember  that 
sightly  and  excellent  nobleman  of  nature  and 
of  grace,  that  magnanimous  Christian,  and 
magnificent  minister  of  Jesus  Christ ;  in  per- 
son and  countenance,  in  address  and  conduct, 
in  principle  and  practice,  an  example  worthy 
to  be  rescued  from  the  tomb,  and  held  as  a 
paragon  to  future  ages.  It  is  not  mere  friend- 
ship, nor  mere  admiration,  that  prompts  this 
tributary  effusion. 

Peace  to  the  memory  of  a  man  of  worth, 
A  man  of  letters  and  of  manners  too ; 
Of  manners  sweet  as  Virtue  always  wears, 
When  gay  good-nature  dresses  her  in  smiles. 

On  this  topic  I  may  not  enlarge ;  but  sure 
I  am  it  is  slighted,  disparaged,  and  ignorant- 
ly  violated  by  many,  with  a  loss  of  power, 
and  a  reaction  of  injury,  to  the  cause  and  its 
advocates,  which  is  literally  incalculable. 
Wo  unto  that  man  hy  whom  the  offence  Com- 
eth !  Giving  no  offence  in  any  thing  that  the 
ministry  he  not  blamed.  It  is  less  the  duty 
of  a  minister  of  Christ  to  follow  examples, 


f 
INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  135 

than  to  set  them.  This  is  what  the  Master 
requires  of  him.  It  is  what  the  world  and 
the  church  tos^ether  anticipate.  Be  thou  an 
example  of  the  believers^  in  wordy  in  con- 
versation, in  charity,  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in 
purity. 

There  are  offences  against  good  breeding 
and  views  correctly  liberal,  which  are  as  in- 
tolerable in  the  ministry,  as  faults  can  be  that 
are  in  magnitude  so  secondary  or  so  insigni- 
ficant. Whatever  belongs  to  bigotry  and 
cant ;  to  artificial  and  falsely  devout  intona- 
tions in  worship  ;  every  approach  to  grimace 
and  distorted  features  ;  all  unnatural,  strain- 
ed, or  put-on  appearances  ;  all  theatrical,  os- 
tentatious, or  ludicrous  manifestations  ;  all 
recitals  that  are  impure,  incredible,  or  ridicu- 
lous ;  and  generally,  all  questionable  phra- 
ses, or  startling  and  ultimate  paradoxes,  or 
insincere  averments  ;  in  a  word,  all  vulgar 
allusion,  all  trifling  with  God  or  man,  all 
trespass  against  the  inviolable  canon,  Let 
all  things  he   done  decently  and  in  order, 


136  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

must  be   wholly  precluded  and  religiously 
forborne. 

That  honesty  is  the  best  2^olicy,  though 
not  always  the  policy  of  ecclesiastics — as  his- 
tory mournfully  proves,  is  a  truth  eternal ; 
founded  not  on  the  shifting  mounds  of  expe- 
diency, but  the  adamant  of  the  divine  na- 
ture ;  since  God  himself  is  its  perfect  exem- 
plification forever.  The  world  affects  to  con- 
sider the  truly  honest  man  as  the  truly  silly 
one ;  because  the  world  itself  is  so  deeply 
versed  in  dissimulation,  and  so  plausibly  dis- 
honest. But  the  honest  man  is  the  only  wise 
one,  and  the  world  knows  it.  The  opposite 
character  is  hateful,  contemptible,  untrust- 
worthy, never  ultimately  successful,  soon 
seen  and  known  in  spite  of  the  cunning  in 
which  it  glories,  and  the  deep  mining  opera- 
tions it  manages  in  the  dark.  True,  one 
ought  to  be  wise,  and  not  honestly  ridicu- 
lous ;  to  beware  of  men,  to  ponder  the  paths 
of  his  feet,  and  to  feel  that  wisdom  is  profit- 
able to  direct.     But  have  a  care  of  the  kind 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  137 

of  wisdom  to  which  a  minister  of  the  holy 
God  resigns  the  conduct  of  his  mind.  There 
is  a  species  that  descendeth  not  from  above, 
but  is  earthly,  sensual,  devilish.  The  true 
can  be  easily  distinguished.  Here  are  spe- 
cimens. For  our  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testi- 
mony of  our  conscience,  that  in  simplicity  and 
godly  sincerity,  not  with  fleshly  wisdom,  but 
by  the  grace  of  God,  we  have  had  our  conver- 
sation in  the  world,  and  more  abundantly  to 
youward.  Therefore,  seeing  we  have  this 
ministry,  as  we  have  received  mercy,  we  faint 
not;  but  have  renounced  the  hidden  things  of 
dishonesty,  not  walking  in  craftiness,  nor 
handling  the  ivord  of  God  deceitfully;  but  by 
manifestation  of  the  truth  commending  our- 
selves to  every  mail's  conscience  in  the  sight  of 
God.  A  cunning  ecclesiastic  is  presently 
known  ;  and  then,  who  trusts  him  ?  who  es- 
teems him?  who  loves  him?  Feared,  he 
may  be ;  watched,  he  will  be ;  and  at  last, 
what  he  must  be,  the  honesty  of  God  will 
determine.  Go  tell  that  fox,  said  the  Savior, 
12* 


138  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

in  allusion  indignant  to  the  murderous  and 
adulterous  Herod  Antipas.  Alas !  that  the 
craftiness  of  any  of  the  visible  ministers  of 
God,  since  Judas  hung  himself  or  since 
Wolsey  fell,  should  ever  have  made  the  same 
metaphor  applicable  eminently  to  them.  The 
motto  of  Calvin,  near  the  device  of  his  heart 
m  his  hand,  W3iS  prompte  et  sincere.  The 
design  was  worthy  of  that  noble  reformer, 
who  was  as  truly  worthy  of  it.  His  modesty 
was  equalled  only  by  his  honesty ;  his  sound 
learning  by  both ;  and  these  three  qualities 
were  the  grand  ingredients  of  his  most  esti- 
mable character  ;  the  plinth  and  the  pedestal 
and  the  obelisk  of  his  far-reaching  and  dura- 
ble fame.  If  a  minister  of  the  gospel  con- 
ceals his  heart  from  his  people,  he  need  not 
wonder  if  in  turn  they  secrete  theirs  from 
him.  To  give  a  heart  is  the  only  proper 
way  to  get  one.  It  was  the  way  of  Paul.  It 
is  the  way  of  God,  who  hath  arrayed  his  own 
benignant  excellence  objectively  before  us, 
in  his  works  and  in  his  word ;  and  chiefly 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  139 

challenged  our  hearts,  in  so  lovmg  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  for  its 
redemption. 

It  may  be  opportune  in  this  place  to  con- 
sider a  question  of  weight,  with  reference  to 
the  inculcations  of  a  chair  in  a  Theological 
Seminary  particularly,  and  to  adjust  in  an- 
swer the  true  doctrine ;  namely,  What  de- 
gree of  deference  ought  the  student  to  evince, 
or  what  degree  of  authority  ought  the  profes- 
sor properly  to  exert  7  My  own  expectations 
may  be  inferred,  from  the  principles  I  shall 
venture  to  defend.  They  are  not  formed  for 
the  occasion,  but  are  the  result  of  some  read- 
ing, reflection,  and  comparison,  through  a 
course  of  years.  It  is  plain  that  the  professor 
is  not  infallible  or  inspired.  No  implicit  faith 
therefore  may  be  exacted;  while  the  right 
and  the  duty  of  private  judgment  is  as  much 
admitted,  as  the  fact  of  individual  responsibi- 
lity to  God  is  recognised  and  maintained. 
The  students  are  entitled  to  respect,  esteem, 
love,  prayer,  and  service,  from  the  professor,  in 


140  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

a  degree  pre-eminent,  as  well  as  paternal  and 
peculiar.  What  ties  and  sanctities  of  relation- 
ship, what  affinities  of  solemn  interest,  com- 
bine them,  where  heavenly  love  ought  ever  to 
be  the  common  cement  of  their  intercourse 
and  the  atmosphere  of  their  mutual  duties. 
His  prosperity  is  identified  with  theirs.  They 
are  his  jewels.  Were  his  widowed  affections 
suddenly  sundered  from  the  caresses  of  an  af- 
fectionate congregation  ?  And  was  it  to  serve 
them?    In  them  must  he  find  his  solace  and 

his  compensation if  possible  !    They  are 

his  sons  in  the  gospel :  and  well  it  becomes 
him  to  be  a  father  to  them,  to  seek  their  good, 
and  to  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  all  their 
faculties  and  qualities.  But  on  a  difficult  or 
questionable  point,  or  even  any  common  to- 
pic, after  having  fairly  exhibited  the  logical 
worth  of  both  sides,  when  the  scales  hang 
equal  with  the  beam  seemingly  poised  on  his 
finger,  shall  he  cease  there  ?  Shall  he  bear 
the  central  pressure,  but  leave  the  decision  to 
each  hearer — to  ignorance  or  prejudice  or  ca- 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  141 

price  possibly,  on  tlie  ground  of  disinterested 
and  impartial  elucidation  ;  and  that  they  must 
decide  for  themselves,  without  the  hazard  of 
a  bias  from  his  enunciated  decision  1  And  will 
they  get  no  bias  from  his  reserve,  none  from 
his  inaction  ?  Such  a  course,  I  am  well  aware, 
has  had  its  advocates,  its  precedents,  and  its 
beacons  too,  in  the  high  places  of  theological 
light  in  Europe,  if  not  in  this  country.  For 
myself,  I  may  only  say,  that  I  shall  think  it 
neither  duty,  nor  decency,  to  adopt  it.  Give 
a  synopsis  of  the  question,  whatever  it  is,  on 
both  sides,  I  will,  as  fully  and  as  fairly  as  I 
can  :  but  then  I  shall  just  as  fully,  and  just 
as  fairly,  give  my  own  conviction  of  the  truth 
and  the  duty  of  the  matter ;  add  all  the  rea- 
sons that  seem  relevant ;  and  then,  and  not 
till  then,  c-ommend  the  whole  to  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  student  and  the  blessing  of  the 
Father  of  lights ;  with  the  motto.  Consider 
what  I  say,  and  the  Lord  give  thee  under- 
standing  hi  all  things.  My  grounds  for  suclj 
a  course  are  many  and  definitive.  As  a  preach- 


142  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

er  must  discharge  his  duty,  however  his 
hearers  treat  theirs,  so  the  duties  of  a  profes- 
sor, I  take  it,  are  imperative,  absolute,  perfect ; 
and  the  responsibiUty  of  his  pupils,  sufficient- 
ly distinct  as  their  own.  It  takes  at  last  no- 
thing from  the  freedom  of  the  student.  It  is 
neither  dogmatism  nor  dictation  ;  but  the  pro- 
per business  ex  cathedra  of  a  responsible  in- 
cumbent. It  seems  to  accord  with  the  very 
nature  of  his  office,  and  to  be  one  of  the  main 
reasons  that  a  professorship  is  constituted,  or 
a  seminary  established,  on  fixed  principles, 
with  ecclesiastical  supervision,  connection 
and  accountability.  You  have  all  just  wit-> 
nessed  the  solemn  inauguration  of  a  profes- 
sor, and  the  obligation  he  appropriates.  Of 
that  administered  sanction  I  entirely  approve ; 
and  what,  I  demand,  is  its  import,  other  than 
the  position  I  am  advocating  ?  How  other- 
wise can  he  acquit  his  conscience,  "  to  main- 
tain with  zeal  and  fidelity  the  truths  of  the 
gospel,  and  to  be  faithful  and  diligent  in  all 
'  such  duties  as  may  devolve  on  him  as  a  Pro- 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  143 

fessor  in  this  Seminary,  according  to  the  best 
of  his  knowledge  and  abiUties  ?"  Or  how- 
otherwise  can  he  honor  other  parts,  or  any 
part,  of  his  formal  engagements,  either  in  the 
letter  or  the  spirit  of  their  terms  ?  The  oppo- 
site course  is  favorable  to  scepticism  or  infi- 
del indifference  ;  and  has  resulted  by  fatal  ex- 
periment in  this  and  kindred  evils,  in  Ger- 
many and  other  places  where  it  has  been  spe- 
ciously adopted.  It  implies  either  that  we 
have  no  revelation  from  God ;  or  that  his  re- 
velation is  unintelligible  ;  or  that  the  profes- 
sor is  himself  unenlightened  in  its  meaning ; 
or  that  it  is  of  no  consequence  to  know  what 
it  means ;  truth  and  error  being  mere  fancies 
of  no  importance  or  of  little  difference,  and 
depending  for  their  being,  not  on  the  fixed  re- 
ality of  things,  but  on  the  sentimental  whims 
of  fools  and  philosophers.  This  is  only  the  pro- 
motion or  the  enthronement  of  that  abomina- 
tion of  parental  misgovernment,  which  affects 
to  inculcate  not  the  eternal  truth  of  the  Bible 
in  early  life,  on  the  minds  of  their  precious 


144  inAuccral  Address. 

children,  because  forsooth  they  wish  tliein  fo' 
wait  till  maturity  shall  qualify  them  for  an  in- 
dependent judgment  of  their  owii ! 

"Guilt^s  blunder,  and  the  loudest  laugh  of  hell." 

For  such  a  course  no  sound  reason  can  be 
given.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  escaping 
responsibility  by  indecision,  or  a  negative 
policy.  A  man  may  be  to  blame  any  where, 
for  not  doing  his  duty,  and  for  failing  to  bear 
witness  for  the  truth,  on  any  subject,  as  real- 
ly, and  often  as  deeply,  as  for  actively  per- 
petrating mischief  in  ways  more  palpable. 
It  were  a  bad  example  to  those  Avho  are  to 
teach  Qthers,  and  might  be  proper  in  the  pul- 
pit, if  it  be  in  the  lecture-hall  or  the  recita- 
tion-room. And  what  were  the  pulpit  then  ? 
a  contemptible  craven  theatre  of  negation 
and  impotence ;  no  longer  the  focus  of  hea- 
venly light,  the  throne  of  truth,  the  vantage 
ground  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed 
God.  Apart  from  the  spiritless  imbecility 
and  odious  absurdity  of  such  a  course,  it  is 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  115 

an  execrably  guilty  one  in  the  sight  of  God. 
As  such  I  denounce  it  in  his  name,  and  in- 
voke his  direction  while  I  purpose  to  pursue 
a  better.     There  is  an  immensity  of  deceit 
and  positive  evil  in  all  such  negative  good- 
ness :   nor  have  I  so  learned  Christy  as  to 
give  it  place  by  subjection^  no,  not  for  an 
hour.     I  suppose  it  however  a  way  almost 
impracticable  with  us.   Hence  I  shall  always 
give  my  judgment,  and  inculcate  it  with  ar- 
dor, as  I  shall  aim  also  to  do  it  with  wisdom, 
just  in  proportion  to  my  own  conviction — to 
its  clearness,  its  importance,  and  its  relative 
obstructions.     I  cannot  do  otherwise,   and 
wisely  seek  the ;  good  of  the  students.    From 
them  we  all  have  a  right  to  expect  much 
every  way ;  for  who  ought  to  be  excellent, 
teachable,  orderly,  industrious,  devoted,  con- 
sistent, exemplary,  spiritual,  wise,  courteous, 
agreeable,  if  not  they  ?  whose  calling  is  more 
liigh,  whose  obligations  greater  ?  whose  pro- 
mise brighter  ?  whose  pledges  more  solemn, 
whose  destiny  more  sublime  ?  or  whose  re- 
13 


146  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

sponsibility,  if  recreant,  more  tremendous? 
Of  them  we  expect  many  things  with  perfect 
reason,  which  it  becomes  equally  their  duty 
and  their  interest  promptly  to  render  :  such 
as,  attendance  and  attention ;  punctuality  and 
deference  ;  candor  and  docility ;  a  confiding 
and  submissive  carriage  towards  all  regular 
exactions.  They  must  suffer  us  to  tell  them 
their  qualities  that  need  correction,  as  we 
ouo^ht.  A  professor  in  their  service  must  be 
the  principled  minister  of  their  real  benefit 
and  their  lasting  good.  He  must  care  more 
to  profit  than  to  please  them ;  think  less  of 
proximate  than  of  ultimate  results ;  and  so 
discipline  and  dress  them,  that  their  future 
usefulness  and  their  future  gratitude  shall 
flourish  together  in  congenial  fruit.  He  must 
therefore  do  for  them,  what  thousands  have 
been  ruined  for  wanting,  as  a  mirror  of  their 
imperfections,  a  faithful  reflector  of  their  ble- 
mishes, an  unbribed  monitor  of  their  defects, 
a  courageous  censor  of  their  faults,  a  friend 
impartial  and  exact  in  promoting  their  dis- 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  147 

ciplined  improvement :  that  so  they  may  be 
well  matured  for  the  stations  they  are  to  oc- 
cupy, and  which  they  may  retain  with  use- 
fulness and  honor,  perhaps  greater  than  ever 
did  their  less  privileged  instructors,  and  per- 
haps long  after  they  shall  have  slumbered  in 
the  dust.  The  charge  itself  is  great  and  so- 
lemn ;  in  the  sufficiency  of  Jesus  Christ  alone 
do  I  attempt  its  arduous  duties.  May  he  fur- 
nish us  all  for  the  work ;  make  us  equal  to 
its  performance  ;  and  bless,  as  its  Great  Pa- 
tron, this  nursery  of  his  ministers ;  and  that 
is  enough  !  /  can  do  all  things  through  Je- 
sus Christ  who  siren gtlieneth  me, 

3.  We  need  a  ministry  of  giualities, 
SOLID  AND  DURABLE ;  who  as  lights  in  the 
church,  shall  wax,  rather  than  wane,  through 
revolving  years ;  commanding  increasingly 
the  testimony  of  all  men  to  their  genuine  and 
vaHed  excellence,  and  imparting  to  our  par- 
ochial constitutions  and  pastoral  affinities 
that  character  of  permanency^  which  seems 
at  present  in  its  effects  less  discernible,  and 


148  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

which  in  the  causes  of  its  diminution  calls 
loudly  for  attention  and  redress. 

To  expatiate  on  the  causes  and  the  effects 
of  frequent  pastoral  changes,  hurtful  to  all 
system  except  that  of  revolution,  and  hurtful 
to  the  church  at  large,  as  well  as  to  the  com- 
munity locally  allied  to  it,  is  neither  my  aim, 
nor  my  duty,  in  this  address.  I  allude  only 
to  existing  evils,  which,  I  fear,  may  be  on 
the  increase  among  us;  and  aver  that  the 
adequate  remedy  may  best  be  found  in  a  mi- 
nistry so  endowed,  trained,  and  qualified,  as 
to  make  it  to  be  generally  seen,  by  every 
congregation,  and  as  the  public  sentiment  of 
the  country,  that  it  is  their  interest  to  retain 
a  settled  pastor  in  all  ordinary  cases,  and  to 
promote  a  mutual  sense  of  the  importance 
and  the  reality  of  permanent  relations  be- 
tween them.  Our  happy  Presbyterian  con- 
stitution is  founded  much  on  the  permanen- 
cy and  the  uniformity  both  of  human  inte- 
rests and  human  wants,  in  regard  to  the  in- 
dispensable and  incomparable  privileges  of 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  149 

the  Gospel  as  connected  with  an  able  minis- 
try, and  a  pure  and  orderly  ecclesiastical 
state.  Its  object  is  to  educate  a  people,  and 
their  offsping  with  them,  for  heaven,  as  the 
seed  of  the  blessed  of  the  Lord  ;  to  inure  the 
minds  of  men  to  this  grand  blessedness  of 
well-ordered  society;  to  secure  the  blood- 
purchased  boon  in  perpetuity  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  and  to  diffuse  and  univer- 
salize the  peerless  benefit,  through  all  the 
neighborhoods  and  all  the  families  of  our  vi- 
cinity, of  the  nation  and  the  world. 

In  Europe  their  ecclesiastical  state  is  in  the 
protection  and  control  of  the  civil  power- 
Their  hierarchy  and  their  magistracy  are 
mutually  dependent  and  united.  A  beneficed 
clergy,  a  secular  and  courtly  patronage,  an 
incubus  of  endowments,  a  worldly  establish- 
ment and  an  earthly  espionage,  parliament- 
ary statutes  and  regal  supremacy,  produce 
indeed  a  formal  permanency ;  which  is  only 
the  caricature  and  the  counterfeit  of  that  for 
which  we  plead.  There  the  proper  ends  of 
13* 


150  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

such  a  machinery  are  mostly  lost  or  super- 
seded, by  the  very  means  and  measures  adopt- 
ed professedly  on  purpose  to  secure  them ;  and 
millions  identify  Christianity  itself,  with  the 
magnificent  frame-work  that  surrounds  and 
conceals  or  rather  misrepresents  and  ruins  it. 
It  is  not  for  permanency  of  abuse  that  we 
plead.  We  justly  abhor  the  whole  mass  of 
simony  and  pluralities ;  of  merchantable  hv- 
ings  and  venal  advowsons  ;  of  profligate  im- 
propriators and  clamorous  expectants;  of 
graceless  promotions  and  ambitious  incum- 
bents ;  of  ostentatious  pageantry  and  period- 
ical display ;  of  superstitious  observance  and 
unprotestant  prerogatives ;  for  such  things  we 
plead  not ;  nor  for  the  bases  on  which  these 
structures  rest ;  when  we  say  that  our  church 
state  in  this  country  would  be  advantaged  by 
a  greater  supply  of  the  elements  of  perma- 
nency in  our  pastoral  connections.  I  do  not 
say  that  every  preacher  should  become  a  pas- 
tor ;  but  I  do  say  that  in  every  case  he  should 
aim  to  be  qualified  for  one  :   that  he  should 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  151 

aim  high  and  not  low,  at  much  and  not  Httle, 
at  excellence  and  not  mediocrity.  He  should 
religiously  abhor  the  meanness  of  being  mere- 
ly passable  ;  and  so  of  "  getting  along  "  to  his 
own  satisfaction whoever  may  have  bet- 
ter reasons  for  an  opposite  sentiment.  If  he 
aims  to  be  a  rover  or  a  minister  at  large,  he 
ought  to  be  more  profoundly  learned  for  all 
that ;  assuming  such  a  charge  of  charges  for 
his  own,  such  a  universe  of  parishes  for  his 
sphere.  If  in  this  age  of  agencies,  he  devotes 
himself  as  the  public  functionary  of  some  good 
cause,  let  him  remember,  if  he  does  this  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel,  that  the  vows  of  the 
ministry  are  still  upon  him.  He  is  still  acting 
under  its  high  commission ;  obligated  to  sus- 
tain its  dignity,  to  vindicate  its  character,  to 
perform  its  duties,  and  to  honor  its  Founder ; 
in  a  style  not  worse  because  of  his  conspicu- 
ity  before  so  many  churches,  or  because  of 
his  duties  so  variously  complicated,  and  the 
injury  religion  must  receive  from  his  weak- 
ness or  his  vanity  or  his  presumption.     Let 


152  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

him  be  no  party-man  ;  and  he  will  find  enough 
to  do  as  a  man  of  principle.  Let  him  have 
no  hobby  in  religion  ever ;  and  he  will  find 
the  gospel  itself,  and  its  glorious  symmetry  of 
relations,  fully  enough  for  him.  Let  him  ne- 
ver be  so  devoid  of  wisdom,  or  so  execrably 
vain  of  his  very  ignorance,  as  to  say  practi- 
cally and  professionally,  /  have  already  at- 
tained^ I  am  already  perfect ;  and  so  to  for- 
bear industrious  assiduity  and  continual  pro- 
gress in  knowledge  during  life :  let  him  leave 
such  communing  with  deceit  and  childish- 
ness, to  the  pitiable  mortals  who  know  no 
more  and  no  better  than  to  indulge  it ;  and 
let  him  aim  at  perfection  as  he  ought,  saying, 
This  will  we  do^  ij  God  permit.  He  will  then 
be  progressively  improved.  He  will  be  wise- 
ly humbled  with  what  he  knows  of  his  own 
ignorance.  He  will  hate  the  character  of  a 
driveller  and  a  dotard  too  much  to  be  one. 
He  will  gather  up  the  fragm^ents  of  time,  that 
nothing  he  lost.  He  will  improve,  endure, 
increase ;  and  God  will  prosper  him.  He  will 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  153 

say  with  joy,  whereunto  I  also  labor ^  striving 
according  to  his  icorking  lohich  icorketh  in  me 
mightily/.  He  will  thus  make  continual  pro- 
gress, which  is  the  only  way  not  to  make  con- 
tinual retrocession. 

Ordinarily  little  good  is  to  be  expected  from 
an  opposite  course.  It  is  not  the  ignis  fatuus 
that  glitters,  nor  the  meteor  that  glares,  nor 
the  comet  that  startles,  but  the  regular  planet, 
or  the  fixed  star,  or  some  other  certain  lumi- 
nary, by  whose  beams  we  can  calculate  our 
bearings  and  regulate  our  course.  Little  may 
be  hoped  from  the  light  of  those  wandering 
stars,  ever  eccentric  and  ever  uncertain, 
whose  rays  are  not  sufficiently  bright,  or 
steady,  or  redundant,  to  consist  with  the  re- 
lations of  a  permanent  centre,  in  the  midst  of 
regular,  dependent,  illuminated  orbs.  But  let 
our  ministers  be  identified  as  the  ambassa- 
dors of  Christy  by  being  well  versed  and  skil- 
ful in  the  word  of  righteousness ;  each  a 
faithful  and  raise  serva7it,  whom  his  Lord 
hath  made  ruler  over  his  household  to  give 
13* 


154  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

them  meat  in  due  season  ;  let  them  be  pas- 
tors of  Jehovah,  such  as  he  gives  his  church, 
according  to  his  heart,  loho  shall  feed  them 
with  knowledge  and  understanding ;  who 
can  show  themselves  apjnoved  unto  God, 
ivorkmen  that  need  ?iot  to  be  ashamed,  right- 
ly dividing  the  word  of  truth  ;  good  minis- 
ters of  Jesus  Christ,  nourished  up  in  the 
words  of  faith  and  of  good  doctri7ie,  where- 
unto  they  have  attained;  holding  fast  the 
faithful  word  as  they  have  been  taught,  that 
they  m^ay  be  able  by  sound  doctrine  both  to 
exhort  and  to  convince  the  gainsayers ;  let 
our  ministers  be  such,  and  they  will  be 
known ;  since  they  that  are  otherwise  can- 
not be  hid.  Let  them  be  such  ;  and  in  gene- 
ral, each  one  may  say.  Ant  viam-  inveniain, 
autfaciam:  He  will  fiiid  a  way  of  usefid- 
ness,  or  make  one,  anywhere.  Such  ministers 

will  be  wanted are  now  wanted  urgently 

and  by  thousands.  Instead  of  their  running 
after  places,  places  will  run  after  them.  They 
can  find  each  a  locality  of  usefulness,  where 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  155 

as  pastors  their  flocks  will  be  gathered  and 
wedded  to  them  in  the  ties  of  eternity  ;  and 
where  they  will  endure ;  the  love  of  the  first 
nuptials  being  comparatively  mean  and  va- 
lueless, compared  with  the  true  and  lasting 
endearments  of  subsequent  affection :  where 
esteem  and  gratitude  and  piety,  with  all  their 
heavenly  accompaniments,  will  grow  tenaci- 
ous around  the  mansion  of  the  cultivator  of 
the  soil ;  where  their  common  praises  in  con- 
cert rise  to  the  Giver  of  the  increase  ;  and 
where  the  rejoicing  surface  is  overgrown 
with  the  foliage  and  the  fruitage  that  indicate 
the  garden  of  the  Lord.)  afield  that  the  Lord 
Jiath  blessed. 

A  minister  of  few  ideas,  or  none  that  are 
properly  his  own  ;  whose  mind,  undisciplin- 
ed and  unfurnished,  requires  travel,  for  rea- 
sons inglorious  to  his  character,  inconsistent 
with  his  divine  commissipn,  and  quite  scru- 
table  to  every  body;  a  teacher  that  never 
was  a  scholar,  properly  under standbig  neither 
what  he  says  nor  whereof  he  affirms  ;  such  an 


156  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

one  IS  utterly  unfit  for  office  in  the  church, 
and  never  would  assume  it  were  his  piety 
more  and  his  presumption  less.  Such  a  mi- 
nistry would  soon  subvert  our  constituted 
system,  and  render  its  very  wisdom  ridicu- 
lous. They  would  introduce  an  order  or 
rather  a  disorder  of  itinerating,  unprofitable 
and  progressively  injurious,  of  which  Ave  can- 
not be  too  soon  aware  to  deprecate  and  prevent 
it.  Our  main  resource  seems  to  be  in  tho- 
roughly educating  and  maturing  our  candi- 
dates ;  in  raising,  rather  than  depressing  the 
standard  of  attainment ;  in  a  strict  and  im- 
partial, as  well  as  a  kind  and  affectionate  ad- 
ministration, on  the  part  of  professors  and 
presbyters,  in  examining  and  authorizing  all 
their  applicants ;  in  a  wakeful  intelligence  of 
care  and  sentiment  in  the  church  itself,  that 
they  may  every  where  prefer  to  call  those, 
who  have  passed  honorably  the  ordeals  of 
professional  examination,  and  afterward  pur- 
chased to  themselves  a  good  degree  by  the 
service  in  which  they  have  actually  approv- 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  157 

ed  themselves  to  the  people  ;  and  hnally,  in 
that  confederacy  of  soul  and  union  of  influ- 
ence, in  which  our  common  interests  and 
common  duties,  inducing  a  widely  harmoni- 
ous action,  shall  be  habitually  honored  and 
discharged  together,  as  they  ought  to 
BE  AND  MIGHT  BE,  iu  cvcry  scctlou  of  our 
church. 

If  it  be  said  that  this  exhibition  is  on  the 
whole  appaling,  disheartening  our  youth 
with  the  prospect  of  attainments  they  can 
never  make,  and  deferring  to  the  church  the 
hope  that  her  sons  will  soon  be  multiplied  as 
her  champions  around  her,  or  as  her  heralds 
at  a  distance  ;  I  answer,  the  standard  will  al- 
ways be  low  enough  in  practice  Avithout 
sinking  it  in  theory.  Besides,  it  will  be 
found  on  experiment  to  be  a  great  deal 
cheaper  to  get  competent  knowledge  than  to 
go  without  it.  No  man  knows  what  he  can 
do  till  he  tries ;  and  he  never  Avill  attempt 
great  things,  if  he  has  no  adequate  motive. 
If  a  man  aims  low,  his  skill  is  generally  of 
14 


158  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS^ 

that  sort  that  he  hits  the  mark ;  and  in  con- 
sequence the  archer  is  as  low  as  the  archery* 
He  conforms  himself  to  a  standard  ignoble 
and  degrading.  If  a  young  man  knows  not 
his  weakness,  it  is  equally  true  that  he  knows 
not  his  strength  ;  and  shall  his  self-ignorance 
in  any  aspect  be  allowed  to  legislate  for  the 
church,  respecting  the  quality  of  her  approv- 
ed ministry  ?  He  needs  to  be  encouraged,  as- 
sisted, and  enlarged.  He  needs  to  be  taught 
to  soar ;  and  his  professors  must  now  perform 
for  him,  what  he  is  preparing  in  hope  to  do 
ere  long  for  others ;  they  must 

Resolve  each  doubt,  reprove  each  dull  delay, 
Allure  to  brighter  worlds,  and  lead  the  way. 

And  if  m  lower  offices  innumerable,  men 
task  themselves  to  grand  achievements  and 
succeed,  why  not  in  that  profession,  which  ^ 
in  importance,  in  profit,  in  peril,  in  courage, 
in  magnificence,  in  usefulness,  in  responsi- 
bility, in  solemnity,  in  glory,  has  nothing 
equal  to  it  in  the  universe  of  human  pur- 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  159 

suits  ?  What  has  ignorance  to  do  in  the  sa- 
cred office  ?  as  much  as  sin — I  had  almost 
said — and  no  more.  God  is  not  the  patron 
of  darkness ;  he  has  none  of  it  in  his  own 
nature  ;  and  near  his  altars  there  should  be 
perpetual  light.  A  minister  of  Christ  is  ex- 
pressed emphatically  by  the  metaphor  of  a 
star.  Why  ?  Obviously  because  he  is  ap- 
propriately a  luminary  in  the  world, 

Midst  upper,  nether,  and  surrounding  darkness. 

Its  lodgment  is  a  candlestick;  a  church 
brightened  with  its  heavenly  brilliancy,  and 
upholding  its  pure  and  steady  radiations. 

True,  our  youth  are  often  impatient  of  the 
preparatory  process,  and  desirous  of  the  ac- 
tive scenes  of  the  ministry.  The  drill  and 
the  discipline  of  the  theological  academy  are 
tedious,  and  seem  unproductive  too,  to  our 
spiritual  cadets,  who  pant  for  action  and  vic- 
tory in  the  field  militant.  And  this  passion 
for  the  work  is  not  to  be  regretted.  The  as- 
pirant is  nothing  without  it.     There  is  a  ge- 


IGO  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

nerous  enthusiasm,  worthy  of  any  bosom,  in- 
digenous to  the  purest,  and  inspired  by  that 
philosophy  which  sees  things  as  they  are, 
which  ought  to  be  encouraged  and  cultivat- 
ed in  every  minister  and  in  every  candidate. 
It  is  allied  in  nature  and  in  grandeur  to  the 
zeal  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  There  is  a  glory 
incomparable  in  active  ministerial  engage- 
ment, in  the  performance  of  proper  official 
duties,  that  must  arrest  the  gifted  and  attach 
the  good.  It  is  the  excellent  way  in  which 
an  ingenuous  expectant  is  honorably  called 
to  glorify  God.  It  is  distinction,  virtuous 
and  legitimate,  lofty  and  lasting,  eternal  and 
divine.  The  aspirations  of  piety,  the  pro- 
mise of  intellect,  and  the  stamps  of  vocation 
from  above,  are  all  involved  in  it.  Yet,  for 
the  same  reason  that  piety  is  not  all  in  the 
qualifications  of  the  ministry,  the  mind  must 
be  stored,  regulated,  ripened,  fully  and  cor- 
rectly ;  or  a  brief  and  unfruitful  career  at 
best,  may  be  ordinarily  predicted.  There  is 
special  need  of  such  preparation,   all   the 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS.  161 

more,  where  there  is  excellence  of  capacity 
and  adaptation  of  gifts,  connected  with  dis- 
tinguished zeal.  The  greater  momentum  of 
the  powers,  is  only  the  more  perilous,  with- 
out proportionate  and  balancing  concomi- 
tants; verifying  the  poetry  of  the  Roman 
Satirist, 

Vis  consili  expers,  mole  ruit  sua. 
The  finest  energy,  devoid 
Of  wisdom,  soon  is  self-destroyed. 

A  mighty  and  an  intense  mental  action, 
without  expansion,  erudition,  and  experi- 
ence ;  without  a  wisdom  presiding  in  its 
movements  that  is  equal  to  its  regular  con- 
trol ;  may  soon  become  the  victim  of  its  own 
achievements,  the  sport  of  disturbing  forces 
from  without,  or  the  foil  and  the  eulogium  of 

intellect  less  rapid  and  less  glowing but 

more  effective,  useful,  enduring;  because 
enriched  and  guarded  with  ampler,  and  bet- 
ter assorted,  and  more  valuable,  though  not 
more  showy  materials.  Whatever  be  the 
cast  or  the  measure  of  native  endowments, 
14* 


162  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

as  they  can  do  nothing  in  the  best  manner 
without  appropriate  education,  so  with  such 
culture,  a  mind  less  mighty  and  of  qualities 
less  sparkling,  more  steadfastly  endures — 
shines  with  a  radiance  purer  and  more  certain 
— allures,  attaches,  and  guides  a  larger  mul- 
titude of  tributaries,  each  owning  a  benefac- 
tor, and  inheriting  a  blessing,  in  the  centre 
that  attracts  him.  If  it  be  the  tendency  or 
the  temptation  of  the  age  to  dispense  with 
scholarship  in  the  ministry,  it  is  one  to  be 
strenuously  and  thoroughly  resisted.  We 
must  have  a  learned  ministry.  For  what  is 
learning  chiefly  and  supremely  valuable? 
I  answer — only  for  its  subserviency 
TO  religion  !  It  is  not  to  take  its  place,  to 
change  its  nature,  or  to  eclipse  its  light, 
that  we  value  the  one  in  connection  with 
the  other.  The  use  of  learning  as  the  hand- 
maid of  religion,  and  not  its  mistress ;  the 
use,  and  not  in  any  form  the  abuse  of  learn- 
ing, is  that  for  which  we  plead  and  testify ; 
and  conscience  as  well   as  judgment,  our 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  163 

creed,  as  well  as  our  constitutiorij  require 
this  at  our  hands.  We  could  not  belong  to 
a  church  that  ■  pleaded  for  a  no-learning  mi- 
nistry, and  the  due  necessity  of  learning  is 
an  item  of  importance  in  our  objective  reli- 
gion. Preaching  ignorance  is  impious  usur- 
pation and  abuse. 

If  these  views  are  correct,  they  are  also 
encouraging.  Supineness,  presumption,  and 
silly  conceits  of  genius,  may  be  displeased 
with  them ;  but  modesty  and  worth  will  en- 
tertain them  with  an  estimate  more  sound  and 
grateful.  Theirs  is  a  practicable  theory.  It 
gives  promise  to  industry  and  hope  to  exer- 
tion. This  is  the  only  rational  encourage- 
ment. It  shows  the  vanity  of  great  endow- 
ments without  great  attainments.  Even  to 
mediocrity  of  talent,  it  arches  the  prospect 
with  the  bow  of  hope.  Economize  your  pow- 
ers, it  says  to  the  devoted  student.  Improve 
what  God  has  given  you.  Make  the  most  of 
yourself  and  the  best  of  yourself  This  is  the 
way  to  increase  the  talent  your  Lord  has  con- 


164  INAUGURAL   ADDRESS. 

fided  to  you,  rendering  fruit  at  his  coming  a 
hundred  fold.  It  is  to  achieve  what  is  better 
than  fame,  richer  than  wealth,  more  durable 
than  monuments,  mightier  than  royal  power, 
more  splendid  than  imperial  victories.  The 
period  is  coming  when  they  that  be  vnse  shall 
shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament ; 
and  they  that  turn  many  to  righteousness^ 
as  the  stars  forever  and  ever.  We  need  not 
wait,  however,  till  that  stupendous  period,  in 
order  to  know  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  com- 
pared to  the  glory  of  being  a  good  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  this  blessedness  is  iden- 
tified with  being  a  scriptural,  practical,  and 
durable  minister ;  that  it  is  more  within  the 
reach  of  common  talent,  other  things  favor- 
ing, than  is  commonly  conceived ;  and  that 
its  obligation  as  an  object  of  deliberate  and 
practical  devotement,  is  solemn  and  absolute, 
on  all  who  desire  the  office  of  a  bishop. 

A  ministry  thus  scriptural,  thus  practical, 
thus  enduring,  is  the  ministry  we  need.  The 
church,  and  the  nation  needs  it ;  not  the  less, 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  1G5 

but  the  more,  because  of  their  common  insen- 
sibiUty  to  its  vahie.  The  supply  of  baser  fa- 
brics is  allowed  to  be  regulated  by  the  crite- 
rion of  demand ;  according  to  the  received 
doctrine  in  the  marts  of  commerce  and  the 
schools  of  political  economy,  in  regard  to  pe- 
rishable and  merchantable  goods.  The  sup- 
ply of  the  means  of  grace  and  the  ministra- 
tions of  religion,  however,  must  be  conformed 
to  a  standard  etherial  and  divine.  Want  is 
the  criterion  here :  and  often,  in  proportion 
exactly  as  the  absolute  want  is  great,  or  where 
it  is  greatest,  is  the  insensibility  more  profound 
and  the  demand  a  thing  unknown.  It  is  not 
in  death  to  invoke  the  voice  of  God  or  effect 
its  own  resurrection.  And  what  is  this  but  a 
description  of  a  million  neighborhoods  in  ei- 
ther hemisphere  ?  It  is  a  picture  of  human 
nature  as  it  is.  Does  the  moral  want  of  a  peo- 
ple depend  on  their  knowing  it  ?  or  their  dan- 
ger on  their  fear  ?  or  their  safety  on  their  pre- 
sumption 1  Is  their  want  graduated  by  their 
wisdom  ?    The  demand  in  a  given  instance, 


166  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

might  so  depend  ;  and  the  fitting  supply  might 
thence  result.  But  the  question  is,  shall  there 
be  no  supply  without  demand  ?  Is  there  want 
only  where  there  is  sense,  or  where  there  is 
virtue  and  perhaps  piety?  Ought  not  the 
church  and  her  sons  to  care  practically  for 
the  wants  of  the  world,  and  enterprise  sub- 
limely their  adequate  supply  ?  Is  not  this  the 
wisdom  of  Jehovah  in  the  case  ?  How  exten- 
sive, how  costly,  how  admirably  spontaneous, 
the  supplies  he  has  sent  us !  And  did  our  sen- 
sibility herein  precede  and  our  demand  pre- 
vail ;  or  were  those  divine  supplies  regulated 
by  his  perception  of  our  mighty  wants  ?  Ho- 
sanna  to  the  Son  of  David,  who  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.  Let  our 
youthful  heralds  of  the  cross  catch  the  en- 
thusiasm of  their  Master's  great  example! 
Let  them  do  as  Paul  did ;  evincing  the  very 
spirit  of  that  splendid  hero  of  our  faith  ;  say- 
ing, yeay  so  have  I  strived  to  'preach  the  gos- 
pel,not  where  Christ  was  named,  lest  I  should 
build  on  another  man^s  fmindation.    But  a^ 


INAUGURAL    ADDRESS*  167 

it  is  written,  To  whom  he  was  not  spoken  of, 
they  shall  see  ;  and  they  that  have  not  heard 
shall  understand. 

Such  a  ministry,  my  brethren,  will  be  devot- 
ed and  occupied  in  their  proper  work.  Souls 
will  be  their  hire  and  seraphs  their  compani- 
ons. God  will  send  them  prosperity.  And  he 
that  reapeth  recelvelh  ivages,  and  gathereth 
fruit  unto  life  eternal.  Each,  by  diffusing 

TRUTH,  WILL  BECOME  THE  MOST  EFFECTIVE 
CORRECTOR  OF  ERROR  IN  THE  WORLD.  They 

will  not  be  furious,  illiberal,  or  exterminating; 
increasing  the  mounds  of  scandal  and  the  for- 
tifications of  obstinate  impenitence.  They 
will  meekly  feel  the  force  of  the  interrogation, 
Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  marl's 
servant  ?  To  his  own  master  he  standeth  or 
falleth.  Yea,  he  shall  he  holden  up  :  for  God 
is  able  to  tnake  him  stand. 

In  reference  to  '-measures"  in  pastoral 
theology,  I  have  but  a  word  to  offer.  No  man 
here  ought  easily  to  take  offence  or  easily  to 
give  it.  General  rules  of  propriety  alone  can 


16B  hNAlJUUIlAL    A  DDK  ESS. 

be  inculcated  or  established.  Evils  must  be 
defined,  dangers  indicated,  and  principles 
considered.  We  have  no  stereotyped  digest 
for  universal  practice  ;  especially  in  a  church 
like  oursj  extended  through  so  many  recent 
and  varying  districts.  Much  is  to  be  left  to 
Christian  wisdom,  in  places  as  they  are  and 
in  cases  as  they  come,  according  to  the  best 
lights  of  the  presiding  bishop  and  the  paro- 
chial presbytery.  Caution  and  care  should 
be  reciprocated,  and  hearty  coimsel  inter- 
changed ;  each  considering  his  relations  to 
a  neighboring  brother,  to  the  precedents  he 
may  form,  and  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
church.  Faults,  real  or  imaginary,  should  be 
treated  with  delicacy;  considered  with  the 
magnanimity  that  appreciates  trifles,  with  in- 
telligent discrimination  in  regard  to  any  of 
grave  importance,  and  with  the  7iieekness  of 
ivisdom  that  would  do  nothing  rather  than 
do  wrong.  I  am  no  friend  to  disorder,  vulga- 
rity, or  fanaticism  ;  and  none  to  intolerance, 
sectarian  party-spirit,  or  dignified  formalism : 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS.  169 

i\nd  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  intend  to  pursue 
tlie  true  interests  of  the  church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  so  flir  as  I  know  them,  in  their  purity 
and  unity,  for  this  world  and  that  which  is 
to  come. 

From  this  outhne,  my  brethren,  you  may 
anticipate  something  of  my  future  course  in 
this  Seminary.  I  entreat  your  sympathy, 
your  fraternal  aifection,  your  candor,  your 
support  in  all  right  things,  and  your  cordial 
prayers.  I  have  hazarded  much,  and  acted 
with  more  decision  than  man^^  suppose  or 
know,  in  accepting  your  call.  It  seems  how- 
ever to  have  been  the  sure  work  of  God,  and 
he  has  cleared  the  path  of  duty  to  my  feet. 
My  peace  is  in  HIM,  and  I  bless  his  name  ! 
The  position  of  an  officer  in  this  sacred  school, 
is  that  of  conspicuity  to  the  malice  of  the  foe 
and  even  to  the  missiles  of  the  good :  for, 
alas !  there  are  other  qualities,  beside  good- 
ness, in  the  composition  of  the  best.  Trials 
we  may  all  anticipate  in  this  world  ;  triumphs 
are  reserved  for  a  better.  You  will  not  expect 
15 


170  INAUGURAL    ADDRESS. 

perfection  any  where  on  earth.  Perfection  is 
on  the  throne  eternal.  Jehovah  reigns.  In 
spite  of  his  enemies,  in  spite  of  his  friends,  he 
will  save  his  oion  elect ;  he  will  prosper  the 
dominion  of  his  Son ;  and  he  will  be  saluted 
with  the  interminable  praises  of  a  multitude 
that  no  man  can  number,  ransomed  by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb  !  To  HIM  let  us  all  com- 
mit ourselves,  with  all  that  we  love  and  va- 
lue ;  that  at  last  we  may  be  found  among  his 
chosen,  and  exult  in  his  glorious  presence 
forever. 


MEMORANDA. 
t 


The  Theological  Seminary  in  Auburn 
enjoys  local  advantages  of  a  high  and  com- 
manding character ;  and  as  such  is  probably 
unsurpassed.  For  purity  of  air  and  salubrity 
of  climate ;  for  rich  and  splendid  scenery, 
and  an  abundance  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  ; 
for  consequent  cheapness  and  facility  of  liv- 
ing ;  for  a  position  central,  accessible,  and  re- 
lated to  a  tract  of  country  proverbially  flou- 
rishing and  mighty,  as  well  as  opulent  and 
populous ;  for  general  intelligence,  the  means 
of  education,  and  a  comparatively  virtuous 
population ;  for  the  privileges  of  the  gospel, 
an  evangelical  public  sentiment,  and  a  gene- 
rous enlargement  of  character ;  and  especial- 
ly, for  prospective  influence  and  grandeur  of 
destiny :  for  these  in  combination  and  degree, 
no  district  of  our  land  is  probably  comparable 
to  Western  New- York;  and  no  village, 
town,  or  city,  in  the  district,  superior  to  Au- 


172  MEMORANDA. 

burn.  We  might  accommodate  the  personifi- 
cation and  apostrophe  of  Goldsmith,  to  the 
namesake  in  this  hemisphere  of  his  favorite 
village  before  it  was  deserted^  in  a  sentence 
equally  just : 

Sweet  Auburn!  loveliest  village  of  the  West. 

It  was  certainly  a  wise  and  happy  thought, 
to  found  in  this  section  of  our  country,  and  in 
this  incomparable  spot,  a  nursery  of  evange- 
lical ministers,  which  should  permanently 
bless  the  heritage  of  God.  The  enterprize 
originated  here^  in  the  bosoms  of  piety.  A 
very  few  matured  it ;  when,  to  the  many,  it 
seemed  impracticable  or  useless,  if  not  Uto- 
pian. Difficulties,  appaling  and  innumerable, 
surrounded  its  nativity  and  menaced  often  its 
existence.  But  the  spirit  of  faith  and  prayer, 
of  reflection  and  principle,  of  hope  in  God 
and  consistent  action,  prevailed. 

The  project  of  establishing  a  Theological 
Seminary  in  Western  New- York,  was  con- 
ceived as  early  as  the  year  1813  or  14 ;  when 


MEMORANDA.  173 

the  subject  was  laid  before  the  Presbytery  of 
Cayuga,  by  Dr.  Lansing,  then  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Onondaga,  the  Rev.  Caleb  Alexander, 
and  the  Hon.  Joshua  Forman.  The  plan  was 
favorably  received ;  and  the  Presbytery  gave 
to  the  above  gentlemen,  an  attested  copy  of 
their  Resolution,  in  which  their  views  were 
embodied.  Dr.  Lansing  however  removed 
soon  after  to  the  eastern  part  of  the  State  ;  and 
the  design  was  prosecuted  no  farther  till  the 
year  1817,  when  he  returned  and  became  the 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Auburn. 
He  then  resumed  it.  His  people  largely  co- 
operated with  their  pastor ;  entered  heartily 
into  the  design,  and  generously  pledged  their 
influence,  with  their  prayers  and  their  dona- 
tions, for  its  prosecution  and  success.  The 
enterprize  now  began  to  attract  consideration 
and  enquiry,  and  always  with  increasing  pro- 
mise of  success. 

On  the  twentieth  of  February,  1818,  at  Ro- 
chester, the  Synod  of  Geneva  Resolved  on  its 
establishment.  "  for  the  purpose  of  training  a 
15* 


174  MEMORANDA. 

competent  and  learned  ministry ;"  took  mea- 
sures for  displaying  before  the  next  General 
Assembly  a  program  of  their  design,  with  a 
view  to  obtain  the  approbation  of  the  Supreme 
Judicatory  of  our  church  on  their  object,  and 
were  happily  successful ;  and  erected  a  com- 
mittee with  ample  powers  and  full  instructions, 
to  whom  it  was  wholly  referred,  consisting  of 
three  members  from  each  of  the  Presbyteries 
of  Niagara,  Ontario,  Bath,  Geneva,  Cayuga, 
and  Onondaga :  of  this  Committee,  the  Rev. 
William  Wisner,  then  of  Ithaca,  was  chair- 
man ;  ever  an  influential  and  useful  friend  of 
the  Institution,  though  lately  removed  by  fee- 
ble health  from  Western  New- York,  where 
his  labors  have  been  so  valuable  for  many 
years. 

The  Institution  was  incorporated,  April  14, 
1820.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Richards,  then  of  New- 
ark, N.  J.  was  unanimously  elected  to  the 
Professorship  of  Theology^  July  13,  1820, 
but  declined  at  that  time  the  office. 

Dr.  Perrine,  then  resident  here,  and  Dr. 


MEMORANDA.  175 

Mills,  then  of  Woodbridge,  N.  J.  were  unani- 
mously elected  to  their  present  offices,  on 
Wednesday,  May  2,  1821,  and  Dr.  Lansing 
was  unanimously  elected,  at  the  same  time, 
to  the  Professorship  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and 
Pastoral  Theology.  They  all  accepted 
promptly  the  appointment,  and  were  regu- 
larly inaugurated  on  the  tenth  of  My  fol- 
lowing. 

The  professors  of  the  institution  were  con- 
stituted a  Faculty,  and  entrusted  with  the  ad- 
ministration of  its  concerns,  by  the  Board  of 
Commissioners  recognised  in  the  Act  of  In- 
corporation ;  the  Board  being  constituted  of 
two  ministers  and  one  elder,  annually  elected, 
from  each  of  "  the  Presbyteries  of  Niagara, 
Genesee,  Rochester,  Bath,  Ontario,  Geneva, 
Cayuga,  Onondaga,  Oneida,  St.  Lawrence, 
and  such  other  Presbyteries  as  shall  hereafter 
associate  with  the  Synod  of  Geneva,  for  the 
purpose  aforesaid."  On  "the  second  Wed- 
nesday of  October,"  1821,  the  Seminary  was 
opened  for  the  reception  of  students. 


176  MEMORANDA. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, other  Presbyteries  were  invited  to 
"  associate  "  with  those  whose  representatives 
they  are,  in  sending  their  Commissioners 
henceforth,  and  so  participating  in  the  go- 
vernment of  the  Seminary;  especially  the 
three  Presbyteries  in  the  city  of  New- York. 
The  Institution  looks  to  the  friends  of  piety 
in  connection  with  our  own  church,  in  that 
city,  for  some  farther  tributes  of  their  gene- 
rous appreciation  of  the  West ;  especially  to 
an  effort  now  in  progress,  to  complete  its  esta- 
blishment, and  supply  its  mightier  wants,  in 
a  way  adequate  comparatively  to  the  large- 
ness and  the  grandeur  of  its  design. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Phelps,  who  delivered  the 
charge  herein  contained,  has  accepted  an 
agency,  or  rather  the  agency  of  this  measure ; 
to  whom  the  public  are  referred,  and  from 
whose  valuable  services  are  expected  results 
of  importance  and  success. 

The  embarrassments  of  the  Institution  were 
once  signally  relieved  by  the  generous  dona- 


MEMORANDA.  177 

tion  oi fifteen  thousand  dollars,  endowing  tlie 
Professorship  of  Christian  Theology.  The 
benevolent  individual  whose  heart  is  disci- 
plined to  devise  such  liberal  things,  chose 
characteristically  to  be  anonymous  and  invi- 
sible in  the  transaction  ;  in  which  the  ser- 
vices of  Eleazer  Lord,  Esq.  acting  as  his  at- 
torney, were  generously  and  memorably  ren- 
dered to  the  cause.  The  grant  was  dated  at 
New- York,  Aug.  15, 1823,  and  the  donor  has 
become  known  only  by  public  inference. 
How  well  it  were,  and  how  much  better  than 
it  is,  had  the  public  made  inferences,  in  re- 
lated cases,  always  as  legitimate,  as  impartial, 
and  as  just !  Then  had  signal  worth  been  un- 
assailed  by  infidel  detraction,  by  malignant 
envy,  by  persecution  furious  and  implacable  ! 
Then  had  posterity  less  to  censure  in  the  cen- 
surers,  less  to  praise  in  the  majesty  of  princi- 
ple and  the  manliness  of  heroic  trust  in  God ! 
But  his  epitaph  is  not  yet  written  ;  nor  does 
it  seem  that  the  interests  of  the  church,  the 
rights  of  man,  or  the  cause  of  God,  can  soon 


178  MEMORANDA. 

spare  him  for  the  reward  of  grace  that  awaits 
him  in  a  world  of  glory,  according  to  the  hum- 
ble but  not  uncertain  hope  of  the  Christian. 

Serus  in  coelnm  redeas,  diuque 
Laetus  inlersis  populo  Q,uirini  : 
Neve  te  nostris  vitiis  iniquum 

Ocior  aura 
Tollat.   Hie  magnop  potius  triumphos 

The  donor  named  the  Professorship  in  ho- 
nor of  the  prospective  incumbent ;  as  appears 
in  the  sequel  of  these  reminiscences.  Dr, 
Richards  was  unanimously  re-elected  to  his 
present  office  Sept.  10, 1823,  and  inaugurated 
on  Wednesday,  Oct.  29,  of  the  same  year. 

The  following  obligation  is  subscribed  by 
every  student  indispensably ;  namely, 

"  Deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 
importance  of  improving  in  knowledge,  pru- 
dence, and  piety,  I  solemnly  promise,  in  a 
reliance  on  divine  grace,  that  I  will  faithful- 
ly and  diligently  attend  to  the  instructions  of 
this  Seminary ;  and  that  I  will  conscientious- 


MEMORANDA.  179 

iy  and  vigilantly  observe  all  the  rules  and 
regulations  for  its  instruction  and  govern- 
ment, so  far  as  the  same  relate  to  the  stu- 
dents ;  and  that  I  will  obey  all  the  lawful  re- 
quisitions, and  readily  yield  to  all  the  whole- 
some admonitions  of  the  Professors  and  Trus- 
tees of  this  Seminary,  while  I  shall  continue 
a  member  of  it." 

The  following  subs*cription  and  averment 
is  exacted  of  every  Professor  in  public,  at  his 
inauguration ;  namely, 

"  In  presence  of  the  omniscient  and  heart- 
searching  God,  I  do  solenmly  and  sincerely 
affirm  and  declare,  that  I  believe  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  to 
be  the  word  of  God,  and  the  only  infallible 
rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  that  I  do  receive 
and  adopt  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the 
Catechisms  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  as  containing 
the  system  of  doctrine  taught  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures ;  that  I  do  approve  of  the  govern- 
ment and  discipline  of  the    Presbyterian 


180  MEMORANDA. 

Church,  as  prescribed  in  the  "  Form  of  Go- 
vernment" and  "Discipline"  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  these  United  States:  and  I 
do  solemnly  promise  to  maintain  with  zeal 
and  fidelity  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  to 
be  faithful  and  diligent  in  all  such  duties  as 
may  devolve  on  me  as  a  Professor  in  this 
Seminary,  according  to  the  best  of  my  know- 
ledge and  abilities." 

The  general  success  of  the  Institution  has 
answered  the  views  of  its  pious  founders. 
Between  two  and  three  hundred  students 
have  enjo}/%d  its  benefits ;  and  its  aliimiii 
are  now  known  and  read  of  all  onen^  in  dif- 
ferent sections  of  our  own  country,  and  in 
missionary  stations  in  distant  parts  of  the 
world.  To  make  practical  and  useful  mi- 
nisters, as  well  as  learned  and  masterly  di- 
vines, has  ever  been,  perhaps  distinguish- 
ingly,  the  aim  of  the  Institution. 

The  curriculiun  of  the  Seminary  extends 
to  three  years ;  a  period  sufficiently  short  to 
acquire  and  digest  the  requisite  knowledge. 


MEMORANDA.  181 

In  the  Junior  Year,  the  studies  are — He- 
brew; Critical  Reading  of  the  New-Testa- 
ment ;  Principles  of  Interpretation ;  Biblical 
History  and  Antiquities.  In  the  Middle 
Year,  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy;  Na- 
tural and  Revealed  Religion ;  Canon  of  Scrip- 
ture; Hebrew  and  Greek  Exegesis  continued. 
In  the  Senior  Year,  Polemic  and  Pastoral 
Theology ;  Composition  of  Sermons ;  Eccle- 
siastical History ;  Church  Polity.  These, 
with  exercises  in  Composition  and  Declama- 
tion, through  the  entire  course. 

The  vernal  vacation  commences  the  day 
previous  to  the  first  Thursday  in  May,  and 
lasts  four  weeks.  The  autumnal,  with  the 
close  of  the  summer  term,  the  third  Wednes- 
day of  August,  and  lasts  eight  weeks. 

The  year  commences  at  the  close  of  the 
vacation  in  October ;  at  which  time,  it  is  pro- 
per and  advantageous  for  students  to  enter 
the  Seminary. 

Board  in  Commons  is  furnished  to  the 
students  in  the  Edifice,  at  one  dollar  a  week ; 
15 


182  MEMORANDA. 

or  half  that  sion  for  students  sustained  by 
benevolent  societies.  No  charge  is  made  for 
tuition,  rooms,  the  use  of  the  Library,  or  fur- 
niture. Fuel,  five  dollars  a  year ;  washing 
and  lights,  at  ordinary  prices. 

The  Library  contains  a  valuable  collec- 
tion— but  needs  a  large  increase — of  choice 
theological  works ;  now  about  4000  volumes. 

The  annual  meeting  of  the  Boards  of 
Trustees  and  Commissioners,  is  held  on  the 
Tuesday  next  preceding  the  vacation  in  Au- 
gust ;  and  the  annual  public  examination  of 
the  several  classes  commences  on  the  Friday 
previous.  The  anniversary  week,  espe- 
cially the  different  public  exercises  of  Tues- 
day and  Wednesday,  present  occasions  of  re- 
ligious and  intellectual  interest  of  a  high  and 
attractive  character. 

The  site  of  the  Seminary  is  one  of  emi- 
nence and  beauty,  as  well  as  convenience; 
located  on  one  of  the  symmetrical  and  undu- 
lating hills  of  the  future  city  of  Auburn.  Ten 
acres  of  excellent  land  are  attached,  as  the 


MEMORANDA.  183 

grounds  of  the  Institution ;  the  generous  pre- 
sent of  the  Messrs.  Glen  and  CorneUus  Cuy- 
ler,  and  Mr.  John  H.  Hardenberg ;  and  only 
a  part  of  their  exemplary  generosity  to  its  in- 
terests. The  late  Col.  Samuel  Bellamy,  and 
Thaddeus  Edwards,  Esq.  to  mention  no 
others  where  memory  presents  them,  are 
names  not  to  be  forgotten  among  its  large- 
hearted  and  early  patrons ;  and  never  may 
it  become  the  dishonor  of  its  friends,  that  the 
benefactors  of  the  Seminary,  especially  those 
of  a  primitive  and  distinguished  character, 
are  not  gratefully  commemorated  and  re- 
vered in  all  their  proceedings,  as  builders  on 
the  foundation  they  have  so  amply  and  mu- 
nificently laid.  The  history  of  the  Seinina- 
ry  is  yet  to  he  loritten ;  and  if  Truth  shall 
perform  the  noble  office,  honor  to  whom  honor 
is  due  will  rescue  from  silence  many  a  sleep- 
ing name,  of  equal  modesty  and  worth,  that 
may  inspire  others  to  go  and  do  likeiuise ; 
in  a  cause  where  all  may  do  more,  and  none 
ever  did  too  much,  to  advance  its  sovereign 


184  MEMORANDA. 

interests.  Nor  can  we  conclude  this  hasty 
sketch  without  an  additional  word,  in  refer- 
ence to  ONE  who  may  be  well  denominated 
THE  Father  and  Founder  of  the  en- 
TERPRizE  ITSELF ;  to  whom,  more  than  to 
any  other  human  helper,  the  whole  design, 
its  inception,  prosecution,  and  success,  are 
to  be  credited;  as  its  self-denied,  indefati- 
gable, disinterested,  original,  and  steadfast 
friend.  More  than  all  this  is  due  to  the 
services,  the  memory,  and  the  name  of  a  liv- 
ing benefactor,  already  particularized  in  this 
work ;  whose  great  labors  and  usefulness  in 
the  cause  are  appreciated  by  its  friends,  are 
recorded  in  all  the  original  documents  of  its 
story,  and  will  live  in  the  gratitude  of  com- 
ing generations.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
add  the  name  of  Lansing  to  this  tributary 
attestation. 


MEMORANDA.  185 


FACULTY. 

Rev.  James  Richards,  D.  D.  Richards  Pro- 
fessor of  Christian  Theology. 

Rev.  Matthew  L.  R.  Perrine,  D.  D.  Spring 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  Church 
Polity,  Sfc. 

Rev.  Henry  Mills,  D.  D.  Professor  of  Bi- 
blical Criticism. 

Rev.  Samuel  H.  Cox,  D.D.  Bellamy  &  Ed- 
wards Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and 
Pastoral  Theology. 


DEPOSITORY  OF  THE  PUBLICATIONS 

OK   THE 

Jflassachusctts  Sabbath  School  Society, 

BRICK   CHURCH   CHAPEL, 

Corner  of  Park  Row,  opposite  the  City  Hall, 
NEW-YORK. 


ALL  THE  WORKS  OF  THE  ABOVE  SOCIETY 


TAYLOR    &    GOULD, 

111  any  Q,iiautity,  at  the  Society's  Prices. 

ALSO, 

A.  constant  supply  of  the  Publications  of  the  American  Sini' 

day  School  Union,  and  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 

Sunday  School  Union,  at  the  same  prices  as 

sold  at  their  respective  Depositories. 


2 

Taylor  &  Gould  have  also  a  large  and 
choice  selection  of  Miscellaneous  Works,  suit- 
able for  Sunday  School  Libraries ;  together  with 
Theological,  Classical,  Moral,  Religious,  and 
School  Books,  Stationary,  Fancy  Articles,  &c. 
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BOOKS    PUBLISHED 

BY 

TAYL.OR   &   OOUL.D. 


HINTS  TO  PARENTS  ON  THE  EARLY  RELI- 
GIOUS EDUCATION  OF  CHILDREN. 

By  Gardiner  Spring,  D.  D.  Pastor  of  the  Brick 
Presbyterian  Church,  New- York.  18mo.  with 
a  steel  engraving.     Price  STJ  cents. 

Prom  the  New -York  Weekly  Messenger  and  Young 
Men's  Advocate. 
Dr.  Spring's  Hints  to  Parents — One  of 
the  prettiest  little  works  of  this  class  that  we  have 
ever  met  with,  has  just  been  published  by  Messrs. 
Taylor  &  Gould,  of  this  city ;  it  is  called  ''Hints 
to  Parents,  on  the  Religious  Education  of  Chit- 


dren.  By  Gardiner  Spring,  D.  D."  The  author 
has  been  long  and  favorably  known  to  the  public 
as  a  chaste  and  powerful  writer.  The  subject  of 
the  present  work  is  one  of  great  moment — one  in 
which  every  parent  has  a  real  interest,  And  we 
commend  this  little  volume  not  only  to  pious  pa- 
rents, but  to  all  who  desire  to  bring  up  their  chil- 
dren in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  them  an  honor 
to  themselves  and  a  blessing  to  their  fellow-men. 
From  the  Commercial  Advertiser. 
Hints  to  Parents,  on  the  Religious  Educa- 
tion of  Children. — By  Gardiner  Spring,  D.  D. — 
New- York,  Taylor  &  Gould.— This  beautiful 
little  volume,  coming  out  at  this  time,  will  be  pe- 
culiarly acceptable  to  the  congregation  of  the  able 
and  excellent  author,  and  will  have  the  effect  of 
a  legacy  of  his  opinions  on  a  most  important  sub- 
ject, now  that  for  a  time  they  are  deprived  of  his 
personal  instructions.  It  is  a  work  that  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  every  parent  throughout  our 
country,  who  has  the  temporal  and  eternal  inte- 
rest of  his  offspring  at  heart.  The  few  and  lead- 
ing maxims  of  the  Christian  Religion  are  plainly 
and  practically  enforced,  and  the  parents'  duties 


are  descanted  in  a  train  of  pure  and  beautiful  elo- 
quence, which  a  father's  mind,  elevated  by  reli- 
gion, only  could  have  dictated.  We  believe  that 
a  general  knowledge  of  this  little  volume  would 
be  attended  with  consequences  beneficial  to  soci- 
ety, since  a  practice  of  its  recommendations  could 
scarcely  be  refused  to  its  solemn  and  affectionate 
spirit  of  entreaty. 


PLEASURE    AND    PROFIT,    OR   TIME 
WELL  SPENT; 

being  the  first  volume  of  a  series. 
Edited  by  Uncle  Arthur.    18mo.    Steel  plate 
frontispiece.     Price  37J  cents. 
Says  the  New- York  Evangelist — 
Pleasure    and    Profit,    or    Time    well 
SPENT. — We  have  before  us  the  first  of  a  series 
of  volumes  just  commenced  by  our  young  friends, 
Taylor  &  Gould,  booksellers.     The  present  vo- 
lume contains  a  pleasing  fancy  sketch,  called  "the 
Museum  ;  by  Charlotte  Elizabeth ;  edited  by  Un- 
cle Arthur."    We  suspect  that  Uncle  Arthur  is 
the  name  adopted  by  a  gentleman  whose  real 


name  would  give  currency  to  almost  anything. 
He  and  his  brother  have  a  happy  faculty  not  only 
to  make  excellent  books,  but  also  to  edit  (or  as  we 
say  in  plain  English,  make  over)  the  books  writ- 
ten by  other  people,  so  as  to  render  them  more 
entertaining,  less  erroneous,  more  safe,  and  far 
more  useful.  We  have  tried  this  little  book,  by 
putting  it  into  the  hands  of  a  "juvenile  reader," 
and  find  it  to  answer  very  well.  The  sentiments 
are  correct,  the  feeling  good,  the  style  pleasing, 
the  price  reasonable. 

From  the  Commercial  Advertiser. 

Pleasure  and  Profit,  or  Time  well 
SPENT. — Vol.  I.  The  Museum;  by  Charlotte 
Elizabeth ;  edited  by  Uncle  Arthur,  Taylor  & 
Gould. 

If  attractive  binding,  paper,  print  and  subject, 
can  render  a  little  book  the  favorite  of  children, 
this  will  be  quite  popular  among  them.  It  pur- 
ports to  be  an  account  of  a  visit  to  the  Museum  ; 
and  the  different  objects  are  explained  in  an  easy 
manner,  in  the  form  of  dialogue.  Religious 
knowledge  is  judiciously  blended  with  instruc- 
tion throughout. 


MISSIONARY  REMAINS;  or  Sketches 
OF  EvARTs,  Cornelius,  and  Wisner. — By 
Gardiner  Spring,  D.  D.  and  others.  With 
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MEMOIR  OF  MRS.  EMILY  EGERTON. 
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THE  RISE  AND  PROGRESS  OF  RELI- 
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By  Phillip  Doddridge,  D.  D.  260  pages. 
ISmo.     Price  25  cents. 


THE  HAPPY  DEATH  OF  MARY  ANN 
CLAPP.— By  Joshua  Bates,  D.  D.  Presi- 
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PLEASURE  AND  PROFIT,  or  the  BOY'S 
FRIEND.  Vol.  IL  By  Carlton  Bruce. 
Revised  by  Uncle  Arthur.   Price  37J  cents. 

Says  the  Salem  Landmark. 
The  Boy's  Friend. — This  is  the  title  of  a  se- 
ties  of  volumes  now  in  the  course  of  publication 
by  Messrs.  Taylor  &  Gould,  of  New- York.  The 
second  volume,  which  we  have  just  received  from 
the  publishers,  is,  as  the  preface  remarks,  "  com- 
posed chiefly  of  extracts  from  different  authors 
who  have  aimed  to  exert  a  favorable  influence  in 
the  formation  of  character.  Some  parts  of  the 
volume  are  original."  The  book  purports  to  be 
by  Carlton  Bruce,  whether  a  real  or  fictitious 
name  we  know  not,  and  revised  by  Uncle  Arthur, 
A  hasty  perusal  has  satisfied  us  that  this  little  vo- 
lumejs  indeed  "the boy's  friend."     The  original 


8 


pieces  are  good,  and  the  selections  are  very  judi- 
ciously made ;  the  whole  forming  a  variety  of  mat- 
ter which  cannot  fail  to  amuse  and  interest  youth, 
as  well  as  point  out  to  them  the  way  to  become 
useful  and  happy  members  of  society. 

The  author  thus  very  pleasantly  speaks  of 
himself: 

It  is  my  desire  to  give  you  pleasure  and  profit,  and  did 
I  happen  to  know  what  would  please  you  the  most,  I 
would  commence  with  that  subject;  but  as  I  do  not,  sup- 
pose, to  make  a  beginning,  I  say  something  about  myself. 

When  I  was  a  child,  I  cried  and  laughed  like  other  chil- 
dren. I  ran  around  the  room,  played  with  my  playthings, 
climbed  upon  my  father's  knee,  and  rocked  in  my  mother's 
lap,  as  children  love  to  do. 

When  a  boy,  I  ran  with  my  schoolfellows  in  merry 
games,  played  "  trap  and  ball,"  "  I  spy,"  and  "  hoop."  I 
tried  hard  in  my  class  to  be  a  good  scholar  in  arithmetic, 
geography,  and  grammar,  and  puzzled  myself  to  compre- 
hend the  terrestrial  and  celestial  globes. 

When  I  became  a  man,  I  read  and  traveled,  saw  much 
of  the  world,  reflected  on  what  I  saw,  and  had  many  oppor- 
tunities to  converse  with  wise  and  good  men.  And  now,  as 
I  have  been  young  myself,  if  I  have  any  ability  to  amuse 
and  instruct  you,  who  are  still  young,  it  will  afford  me 
great  pleasure  to  do  so. 

I  love  to  talk,  when  I  can  give  instruction  as  well  as 
amusement  to  the  young  folks  around  me. 

You  may  fancy,  perhaps,  that  I  have  but  little  method  in 
what  I  say ;  that  I  bring  things  which  have  no  natural  con- 
nexion with  each  other,  and  fly  from  little  to  great,  and  from 
great  to  little  things,  without  order  or  apparent  design. 
But  consider,  the  bee  does  not  devote  one  hour  to  roses, 
and  another  to  violets,  but  roams  indiscriminately  from 
one  flower  to  another,  gathering  honey  from  them  all. 


Now  I  wish  to  do  the  same  thing,  and  if  I  bring  you  all 
the  honey,  surely  you  ought  to  be  satisfied.  What  a  world 
would  this  be  if  the  people  it  contains  were  to  be  system- 
atically placed,  like  soldiers,  in  masses  and  classes  ! — if  all 
the  oak  trees  of  the  earth  grew  by  themselves,  in  one  part, 
and  all  the  elms  in  another  !  It  is  the  mixture  of  the  whole 
that  it  contains,  which  constitutes  the  beauty  of  the  earth. 
When  you  see  one  thing  in  nature,  you  do  not  know  what 
next  the  eye  may  gaze  upon. 

But  I  need  not  weary  you  with  illustrations.  Order  is  an 
excellent  thing,  and  system  is,  at  times,  indispensable ;  but 
the  world  was  never  intended  to  be  divided  with  the  regu- 
larity of  a  checker-board.  I  shall  tell  you  many  stories. 
Some  will  be  principally  for  your  amusement ;  others  will 
give  you  information  that  will  be  of  value  to  you,  or  will 
contain  good  instruction,  such  as  will,  if  you  follow  it, 
make  you  happier  and  better  boys,  and  have  some  influ- 
ence in  making  you,  when  you  grow  up,  happier  and  bet- 
ter men. 

We  think  the  author  has  succeeded  remarka- 
bly wel)  in  doing  what  he  thus  promises.  He  has 
not  only  gathered  a  great  variety  of  flowers,  but 
they  are  of  the  prettiest  and  sweetest  kinds. 

SCRIPTURE    GEMS,   morocco   gilt.     Price 

25  cents. 

Says  the  New- York  Evangelist, 

Scripture  Gems. — A  verse  for  every  day  in 

the  year.     The  smallest,  prettiest,  wee-bit  of  a 

thing  we  ever  saw — designed  for  '•  grown  folks." 

PLEASURE  AND  PROFIT,  Vol.  III.  or 

MARY  AND  FLORENCE.     By  Uncle  Ar- 


10 

thur.  ISmo.  Designed  to  convey  religious  in- 
struction to  the  young — a  good  book  for  Sabbath 
School  Libraries,  &c. 

MEMOIR  OF  THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF 
WILLIAM  COWPER,  ESQ.  Written  by 
Himself,  with  an  Appondix,  from  the  second 

London  Edition.     Price  37^  cents. 

The  above  books  are  neatly  bound  in  muslin  and 
stamped,  and  are  worthy  of  a  place  in  every  family  and 
Sunday  School  Library  in  our  country. 

NEW  TESTAMENT,  designed  for  Sunday 
Schools.    ]  8mo.  muslin.  Price  eight  cents. 

Also  Publishers  of 
THE  NATIONAL  PREACHER,  printed  in 
an  elegant  pamphlet  form,  each  number  con- 
taining two  Sermons  from  living  Ministers. 
Monthly.  Edited  by  Rev.  Austin  Dickinson. 
Price  one  dollar  a  year  in  advance. 

Also  Agents  for 
THE  SABBATH  SCHOOL  VISITER,  pub- 
lished   by    the    Massachusetts    Sabbath 
School  Society.    Edited  by  Rev.  Asa  Bel- 
lard,  Boston.     Price  50  cents. 


11 

Also  Agents  for 

THE  MISSIONARY  HERALD.— Published 
for  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
FOR  Foreign  Missions.  Monthly.  Price 
$1  50  a  year. 

Taylor  &  Gould  will  shortly  publish 

THE  HISTORY  OF  REDEMPTION; 
by  President  Edwards;  with  an  Introduc- 
tion, Notes,  &c.  in  one  Vol.  8vo. 

N.  B.  Orders  for  the  country  will  be  immediately  at- 
tended to,  and  books  forwarded  according  to  directions. 
Should  the  selection  of  books  for  Sunday  Schools  be  left 
with  Taylor  St  Gould,  and  they  should  forward  any  which 
should  not  suit  the  purchaser,  they  may  be  returned,  and 
the  money  will  be  refunded,  or  other  books  given  in  ex- 
change. Those  wishing  to  purchase  are  invited  to  call 
and  examine  their  stock. 

Taylor  &  Gould  have,  probably,  the  largest  assortment 
of  books  suitable  for  Sunday  School  Libraries  to  be  found 
in  the  United  States. 


DATE  DUE 

MAR  1  7  7tl 

MAR  3  1  • 

'L 

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GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  US    A 

[heological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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